Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe meets PM Modi, discusses economic and strategic cooperation

With a focus on advancing comprehensive economic and strategic cooperation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe had extensive discussions on Friday.Ahead of the high-level talks between the two top leaders, Wickremesinghe also met NSA Ajit Doval and is understood to have discussed security cooperation between the two countries.Wickremesinghe arrived in Delhi on Thursday on a two-day visit which is the first tour of India by a senior Sri Lankan leader since the island nation was hit by an unprecedented economic crisis last year.India extended financial assistance worth around USD 4 billion to Sri Lanka, including lines of credit for purchases of food and fuel last year when it was hit by the economic crisis.New Delhi also provided guarantees to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country secure a USD 2.9 billion bailout package."An opportunity to review and lend further momentum to the long-standing India-Sri Lanka ties as the two countries celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations this year," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Twitter as the two leaders began talks.On Thursday evening, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on the visiting leader and discussed various bilateral issues.With inputs from agencies