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India has rolled out a two-week capacity-building programme for a visiting delegation of media officials from Sri Lanka, as part of the follow-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the island nation in April 2025.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal shared details of the programme in a post on X. https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1957794337494102097 "Follow-up of PM @narendramodi's visit to Sri Lanka in April 2025- India's commitment to train 700 personel across domains. A delegation of Media Officials from Sri Lanka started a two-week long capacity building programme in India, with training sessions in @SSIFS_MEA & IIMC. They would also be visiting Odisha for training cum study tour. While in Odisha, the focus would be on understanding the regional media landscape in India," he said. The initiative comes as part of India's broader commitment to support capacity building across multiple sectors in Sri Lanka, aimed at enhancing bilateral cooperation and people-to-people ties. This engagement followed other outreach efforts, including the visit of a 24-member delegation of young political leaders from Sri Lanka last month, who met Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in New Delhi. India, on that occasion, underlined their role in "deepening" the bilateral partnership between the two countries. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the visit was part of India's ongoing efforts to build stronger political partnerships with Sri Lanka. "A 24-member delegation of young political leaders from 14 political parties of Sri Lanka called on Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri as they began their two-week-long programme in India. Foreign Secretary emphasised their valuable role in deepening the #IndiaSriLanka partnership as stakeholders in its future roadmap," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said in a post on X. This visit followed a series of recent high-level exchanges between India and Sri Lanka. Last year, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was the first foreign dignitary to visit Sri Lanka after Anura Kumara Dissanayake took charge as President. During that visit, India had announced the conversion of completed Line of Credit projects worth USD 20 million into grants and also gifted 22 diesel locomotives to Sri Lankan Railways. Later in the same year, President Dissanayake visited India on his first overseas State visit. He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath and Labour Minister Anil Jayantha. During the visit, he held talks with President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, and other senior leaders. A joint statement titled "Fostering Partnerships for a Shared Future" was released during the visit. The two sides also signed a protocol to amend the Double Taxation Agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for training Sri Lankan civil servants. India also announced financial support of USD 14.9 million for a railway signalling project in the Maho-Anuradhapura section and offered 100 scholarships each year to students from the University of Jaffna and Eastern University. President Dissanayake also visited Bodh Gaya and took part in a business interaction in New Delhi, reflecting the growing depth in India-Sri Lanka relations. (ANI)
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