External affairs minister S. Jaishankar reached Sri Lanka on Thursday to hold debt restructuring talks with Colombo, three days after the Union finance ministry formally informed the International Monetary Fund that it is committed to helping the island nation with financing or debt relief.

Talking about Jaishankar’s visit and India’s letter to the IMF, external affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi pointed out that India has always been supportive.

As part of the IMF effort to create a sustainable debt framework for Sri Lanka, it wanted financing assurances from other creditors and India has formally committed to that.

“We are hopeful that conversations with the IMF will close this deal and make a change in how debt is restructured, additional financing comes in and Sri Lanka is able to move to a path of more sustainable fiscal management,’’ Bagchi said, adding that India was “supportive of Sri Lanka bilaterally in assistance”.