Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said his vision for future ties with India holds a stronger economic relationship.

Sri Lanka will hold its first election after the Indian Ocean island's economy collapsed in 2022, resulting in massive public protests that forced the then president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to resign and to flee.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake from the National Peoples’ Power (NPP), an alliance of left-leaning groups led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), or Peoples’ Liberation Front, has emerged as the leading contender.