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Sri Lanka will start work next month on plans to develop an energy hub with India and the United Arab Emirates, the energy minister said on Friday, as the nation looks to leverage its strategic location to cement a recovery from a financial crisis.

The trio signed a deal to create the hub during a visit this month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first global leader to visit the island since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office last September.

Dissanayake won an election with pledges of stability after the worst financial crisis in decades three years ago triggered runaway inflation, sent the local rupee into free-fall and forced the country to default on $25 billion of debt.

The hub in the eastern harbour city of Trincomalee will involve the construction of a multi-product pipeline as well as bunkering facilities and potentially a refinery.

It will also include development of a World War II-era storage tank farm partly owned by the Sri Lankan subsidiary of Indian Oil.

Representatives from state-run Ceylon Petroleum, Indian Oil and AD Ports will meet in Sri Lanka in late May to start discussions on a detailed business plan for the hub, said Energy Ministry Secretary Udayanga Hemapala.

"A joint project monitoring committee has been set up to oversee the development of the business plan and eventually finalise detailed proposals," Hemapala told Reuters.

President Dissanayake also discussed energy cooperation in Colombo this week with UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president's office said.

Chinese state energy firm Sinopec has signed a deal to build a $3.2 billion oil refinery in Sri Lanka's southern port city of Hambantota.

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