India is committed to boosting investment in Sri Lanka to help Colombo overcome its worst economic crisis in recent history, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar announced on Friday.
On Thursday, Jaishankar, who undertook a two-day visit to the island nation, met his counterpart Ali Sabry to discuss a range of issues, including cooperation in infrastructure, connectivity, energy, industry, and health services.
Jaishankar met Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday morning.
During his visit, Jaishankar also stressed that New Delhi has always supported the political and economic stability of the island nation.
"We felt strongly that Sri Lanka's creditors must take proactive steps to facilitate its recovery. India decided not to wait for others but to do what we believe is right. Therefore, we extended financing assurances to IMF to clear the way for Sri Lanka to move forward," India's top diplomat said at a press briefing.
Earlier this week, India sent written financing assurances to the IMF, becoming Sri Lanka's first bilateral creditor to support its $2.9 billion debt restructuring program officially.
"The decision was a reassertion of India's belief in the principle of the neighborhood first and not leaving a partner to fend for themselves," Jaishankar said.
Last year, India extended about $4 billion in terms of credit and rollovers to help Sri Lanka get through an economic crisis. India felt strongly that Sri Lanka's creditors should take proactive steps to facilitate its recovery, he added.
India and China are Sri Lanka's largest bilateral lenders. Sri Lanka owed Chinese lenders $7.4 billion and to India it owed around $1 billion.
As of now, China remains the only major creditor that has yet to back Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan.