India’s Vice President CP Radhakrishnan has begun a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka.
Radhakrishnan arrived in Colombo on Sunday morning for what marks the first bilateral visit by an Indian Vice President to its southern maritime neighbor.
The Vice President held talks with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat.
“Both leaders held productive discussions on further deepening the multifaceted India–Sri Lanka ties, rooted in shared history, strong civilizational and people-to-people linkages,” a statement from the vice president’s office said.
At the meeting, Radhakrishnan stressed on New Delhi’s commitment to its neighbourhood first policy and to boost cooperation between the two nations, a foreign ministry statement added.
He is also set to hold talks with Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya.
In the course of his visit, Radhakrishnan will meet and interact with leaders of the Indian-origin Tamil community and Tamil leaders from Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern regions, according to an official statement.
Indian-origin Tamils are descendants of workers brought by the British Empire to work on plantations in the island’s central highlands, while other Tamil-speaking communities in the north and east trace their roots in Sri Lanka back millenia.
During his Saturday visit, Radhakrishnan is expected to address the Indian diaspora at an event in the Sri Lankan capital, news agency PTI reported.
The vice president will also visit settlements developed under Phase III of India’s Housing Project in the country, which has constructed 4,000 houses so far, with an additional 10,000 in the works, news agency ANI reported.
The trip is Radhakrishnan’s first official foreign tour since assuming office in September last year.
