Colombo - Narendra Modi began the first official visit by an Indian premier to Sri Lanka in nearly three decades Friday, looking to reassert New Delhi's influence over Colombo after its drift towards China.
Modi will hold talks with Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena, who has promised to repair international ties damaged under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse's China-friendly regime, after a ceremonial welcome in Colombo.
The Indian prime minister will also address parliament and visit the Tamil-dominated northern Jaffna region on a visit that comes just weeks after Sirisena made India his first foreign port of call since his election in January.
While observers don't expect major policy initiatives so soon after the neighbouring leaders' last meeting, it is seen as an important signal of a desire to reset ties.
"I am sure together we are going to script a golden chapter in the history of India-Sri Lanka relations," Modi said this week as he set off on a three-nation Indian Ocean island tour that has already taken him to the Seychelles and Mauritius.
He travels north on Saturday for a landmark visit to the Jaffna peninsula, home to the island's Tamil minority and which bore the brunt of a 37-year separatist war in which India was intricately involved.
Modi is expected to push for demilitarisation in the former war zone and more autonomy for minority Tamils who share close cultural and religious ties with those across the Palk Strait in Tamil Nadu.
Modi will be the first Indian prime minister to hold bilateral talks in Colombo since 1987, although several predecessors attended regional summits.
AFP
