Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe has met with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Dubai on the sidelines of the COP-28 global climate summit.
Modi tweeted Friday December 01 afternoon that it was “wonderful to connect and discuss various issues” with Wickremesinghe.
The run-in occurred amid ongoing discussions between the two South Asian nations on separate agreements on investment and trade. Wickremesinghe told this week’s Sri Lanka Economic Summit in Colombo that an attempt to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been hit by a lack of rules to admit new members.
Sri Lanka was earlier attempting to have a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which was scuttled by economic nationalists during the previous Rajapaksa administration.
“We have recommenced the talks with India,” President Wickremesinghe said on Wednesday November 29 at the economic summit organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
“Earlier it was to be one. It has told us … they want one separate one on investment, and one separate one on trade. The investment one I think will take off first,” he said.