Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lanka PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa will hold talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi today. Bothleaders are likely to discuss areas of cooperation and ways to strengthenexisting bilateral relations between the two countries. The Sri LankanPresident will later call on President Ram Nath Kovind.

Mr Rajapaksa arrived in the national capital last evening ona three day state visit to India. The visiting dignitary will be accorded aceremonial reception on the forecourts of Rashtrapati Bhawan this morning. Thisis Mr Rajapaksa's first overseas visit after assuming office.

Before his departure from Colombo, Mr. Gotabaya tweeted thatduring the visit, he is looking forward to strengthening bilateral relationswith Narendra Modi and Government of India.

Following his arrival in New Delhi, Ministry of ExternalAffairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, in a tweet said that a civilisational relationshipnurtured through millennia. He said, the President's visit at the PrimeMinister invitation, demonstrates the strength and dynamism of India-Sri Lankarelations.

The visit is also manifestation of India’s neighborhoodfirst policy and external affairs minister Dr. S. Jaishankar was first foreigndignitary to meet new Sri Lankan President last week.

AIR correspondent reports India is one of the largestinvestors in Sri Lanka with cumulative investments of around 1.239 billiondollars. The investments are in diverse areas including petroleum retail, IT,financial services, real estate, telecommunication, hospitality and tourism,banking and food processing. Sri Lanka is among the major recipients ofdevelopment assistance from India. India’s overall commitment stands close to 3billion dollars, out of which around  560million dollars are purely in grants.