PM Harini Amarasuriya met Xi Jinping Oct 14 and plans to meet Modi on Oct 17

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya returned to Colombo from China on October 15 and left for New Delhi on October 16 on an official visit to India marking Sri Lanka’s delicate tight rope walk to balance relations with the two Asian powers. She had met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on October 14 and she is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday (Oct 17).

She has attended the Global Women’s Summit in Beijing on October 10 and later held discussions with with President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Qiang and several leaders of Chinese Communist Party and returned to Colombo for a one-day stop before leaving for New Delhi to attend the NDTV World Summit 2025. She will be the only incumbent prime minister to address the Summit other than India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Two prominent former Prime Ministers, Rishi Sunak of UK and Tony Abbott of Australia, will also address the NDTV Summit.

Studied In India 

This is the Sri Lankan PM’s first official visit to India. Before her departure she said in a video message that she was looking forward to participating in the NDTV World Summit. “I will have the opportunity to engage with global leaders and thinkers. I hope to share Sri Lanka's perspectives on international cooperation and economic resilience. And to contribute to meaningful conversations on the pressing challenges of our region and the world," she said.

Amarasuriya, who studied at Delhi University’s premier Hindu College, said me she was looking forward to visiting New Delhi again. "This will be my first official visit to India as a Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. India and Sri Lanka, as you know, are bound together by history, culture and shared values. Our relationship is one of great depth and importance and I look forward to using this opportunity to strengthen our cooperation in every sphere, such as trade, investment, education, development and beyond," she said in a statement. 

"I hope to share Sri Lanka's perspectives on international cooperation and economic resilience. And to contribute to meaningful conversations on the pressing challenges of our region and the world," she declared.

Delhi University (DU) is preparing to confer an honorary title on  Dr Amarasuriya on October 18. It has been decided to confer distinguished Hindu College Alumna Award on Dr. Amarasuriya under the provisions of Statute 16 of the Statutes of the University of Delhi. She is the first head of government from the 125-year-old Hindu College of Delhi University, which has nurtured several actors, national cricketers, bureaucrats, political leaders and a former Chief Justice of India.

Strategic Location 

When Amarasuriya was appointed Prime Minister in September 2024, Hindu College principal Anju Srivastava said it was a “proud milestone in the college’s storied history”. “We are delighted to hear that a Hinduite is now the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. It is a proud moment for the Hindu College family. A student of sociology at Hindu College between 1991 and 1994, she is an extremely accomplished academic and politician,” she said.

Political analysts interpret PM Amarasuriya’s visit to Beijing and New Delhi as another strategic decision in Sri Lanka’s successful tightrope walk to balance relations with two Asian powers. The Verite Research Center in Colombo said the experience of Sri Lanka “provides valuable insights and lessons for countries navigating similar dynamics that strive to manage strategic competition and rivalry between global and regional powers with their own development needs and priorities”.

The island-nation’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean has placed it at the centre of intensifying geopolitical competition and rivalry between China and India. Sri Lanka’s experience in balancing its own priorities and needs with the competing interests and concerns of India and China through the lens of project financing has largely succeeded despite occasional hiccups such as Chinese research ships visiting Sri Lankan ports from time to time and India’s opposition to gratnting major projects to China in northern Sri Lanka, just few kilometers away from southern India.

(The author, a former Sri Lankan diplomat, is a political and strategic affairs commentator. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sugeeswara@gmail.com)