High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda met with the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs of India Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, 10 March at the Ministry of Urban Affairs in New Delhi.
High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Minister Puri for the assistance that India has provided to Sri Lanka as envisaged under the four-pillars of cooperation, agreed during the visit of Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa to India in December last year, in particular the USD 500 million line of credit to purchase petroleum products. Additional assistance too has been provided by India to enhance Sri Lanka's petroleum stocks.
High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda also briefed Minister Puri on the challenges that Sri Lanka is currently facing as regards to the supply and distribution of petroleum products and their impact on the country's energy sector. The High Commissioner and the Minister discussed modalities through which India and Sri Lanka could further expand cooperation in the petroleum sector to help overcome the present crisis.
The discussion also focused on a range of issues pertaining to the energy sector, including ways and means through which Sri Lanka could establish long-term strategic ties in the petroleum, oil, gas and related logistics sectors.
Minister Hardeep Singh Puri was a distinguished career diplomat prior to joining politics. He had served at the High Commission of India in Colombo during the period 1984-1988.