Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya spoke to WION’s diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogue 2024 in New Delhi.Balasuriya weighed in on several issues ranging from the India-Lanka relationship, Colombo’s ties with China, tourism, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and more.
While speaking on China, Balasuriya said that “both countries are friends”, but in India’s case it’s a “civilisational link” as he pointed out the historical connection of cultures. He said that China is an “important trading partner”, but so are other countries.
The excerpts of the full interview:
WION: How do you see the India-Sri Lanka relationship, especially in the light of financial connectivity? We recently saw the launch of UPI in your country.
Tharaka Balasuriya: I think India and Sri Lanka’s relationship is at an all-time high. The UPI is beneficial for both countries. If you look at the events of Sri Lanka and what took place one and a half years ago, it mainly started out as a foreign exchange crisis mainly a lack of dollars. So we have to ensure that our dollar dependency is reduced. And we now for example, our biggest tourist market is from media and if we can collect the tourist’s remittance from India and we import about $5.5 billion worth of goods from India and use the Indian rupees, to pay for the Indian imports, then we will reduce our dollar dependency and it also becomes very flexible and it becomes very easy for the Indians to travel to Sri Lanka and then they pay in Indian rupees.
WION: Sir, essentially we recently saw the Indian External Affairs Minister saying that one should go to Sri Lanka. How do you see that comment and how do you see Sri Lanka as a tourist destination for …read more
Source:: The Island