Sri Lankan Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya has described India as a 'big brother' and a partner and even praised PM Narendra Modi for helping the country during the period of crisis.

In an interview with ANI, he said that Sri Lanka wants to work in partnership with India and invited all the Indian companies to come to Sri Lanka. He said that Sri Lanka is looking at becoming a developed nation by 2048.

On making Sri Lanka a developed nation, Tharaka Balasuriya told the Indian news agency, "We are not looking for help. You can't develop a country through handouts. We are looking at partnerships. We look at India as a partner, we look at India as a big brother and we look at India in their success story. And we want to see how India has transformed their country and it's well on its way to become a developed country by, I think, 2047."

He said: "I think we are looking at becoming a developed country by 2048, around the same period. And I think there's a lot of economic opportunities for both India and Sri Lanka. So we feel that we are not looking at handouts. We want to work in partnership with India. So, I invite all the Indian companies to come to Sri Lanka, have a look at Sri Lanka."

He said tourism sector is flourishing in India.

"We are looking at the renewables and the ports and the real estate in Sri Lanka is developing. And there are so many other areas in Sri Lanka which we have not touched, such as minerals, for example. We have the best graphite in the world. Now, Indian companies will be manufacturing the electric vehicles. One of the large components for electric battery is graphite. We used to have about 30,000 graphite mines. So there's a lot of opportunity with the expertise and the technology these Indian companies have, I think they should seriously look at Sri Lanka," he told ANI.