Indian leaders were the first foreign aristocrat to visit the island country since last year’s left-wing election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Sri Lanka to strengthen historical defense and energy ties as Colombo has ties to its strong neighbor and largest lender China.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake unveiled the red carpet for Modi and greeted him with 19 guns on Saturday at the capital’s Independence Square.

Indian leaders are the first foreign nobles to visit the island Left Dissanayake The election swept last year.

Modi also awarded Mithra Vibhushan, the highest civilian honor in Sri Lanka in Dissanayake.

Modi thanked the President of Sri Lankan and said the honor was “an important matter of pride”.

According to Indian media reports, he said: “This honor is not only mine, but also belongs to the 14 billion (1.4 billion) people of India.”

Dissanayake and Modi signed agreements on energy, defense and health, but the highlight of the visit was the symbolic launch of a 120-megawatt solar power plant in Sampur, the island’s northeastern Kerberi region.

The plant has been stagnant for years but has been revitalized due to the support of New Delhi as a joint project.

Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez reported from Colombo that Dissanayake is expected to discuss fishermen from southern India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu It is allegedly invading Enter Sri Lankan territory.

“Hundreds of Indian trawlers use a mechanized system called bottom trawler to transport fish out, which is also destroying the environment,” she said.

Balanced behavior

Modi’s visit was due to Colombo’s struggle for competitive interests with New Delhi and Beijing.

India has been concerned about China’s growing swing in Sri Lanka, which it believes is within its geopolitical sphere.

Dissanayake’s first foreign visit as president came to New Delhi in December, but he made a visit to Beijing in January, highlighting the delicate balancing behavior of Sri Lanka.

China has become Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, accounting for more than half of the island’s $1.4 billion bilateral debt at the time of its sovereign debt in 2022.

Beijing was the first to restructure its loans to Sri Lanka, a move that cleared the way for the island to surface from the worst economic collapse of that year.

Colombo also signed an agreement with a Chinese state-owned company in January that it will invest $3.7 billion in an oil refinery in the south of the island. This will be Sri Lanka’s largest foreign investment and is crucial to the island’s economy.

Modi arrived in Sri Lanka from a summit held in Thailand late Friday and held a series of meetings with regional national leaders as he tried to build relations between India and his neighbors.

Modi is watching Bimstec conference in Bangkok – grouping of seven countries – Modi holds a rare face-to-face meeting with the head of the Myanmar military government Min Aung Hling.

So the mode Hold talks Along with Muhammad Yunus, interim leader of neighboring Bangladesh, the first meeting since the Dhaka revolution canceled Sheikh Hasina, a long-time ally of New Delhi.

India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government, whose overthrow of her sent cross-border relations to the tail, eventually choosing to pay a state visit to China for the first time last month.

Modi also met with Nepal fellow KP Sharma Oli in Bangkok on Friday, the first since Kathmandu returned to power last year and Tshere Tobgay in Bhutan.