India, Sri Lanka review bilateral ties

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IANS | 20 Oct, 2018
India and Sri Lanka discussed the entire gamut of their bilateral relationship during delegation-level talks headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart here on Saturday.

"Both the Prime Ministers discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and ways to further deepen the historically close and friendly relations between the two countries," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

"The leaders exchanged views on regional and global issues," it stated.

According to the statement, the two leaders reviewed the progress in implementation of various decisions taken during high-level exchanges in the recent past, including the visit of Wickremesinghe in April and November 2017, Modi's visit to Sri Lanka in May 2017 during the International Vesak Day Celebrations and the visit of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena for the International Solar Alliance Founding Conference here in March 2018.

"The visit is part of our continuing engagement with the government of Sri Lanka at the highest level," it stated.

"This multi-faceted partnership has been marked by close contacts at the highest political level, growing trade and investment, wide ranging development cooperation, increasing linkages in the fields of education, health, infrastructure, connectivity and capacity building and broadening people-to-people contacts."

India is a leading aid partner of Sri Lanka and New Delhi has extended several lines of credit to Colombo.

Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval called on Wickremesinghe.

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister arrived here on Thursday in what is his fifth visit to India after assuming office in 2015.

A high-level delegation comprising Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Petroleum Resources Development Arjuna Ranatunga, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister and Minister of Youth Affairs, Project Management and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayake and other senior government officials accompanied him.

The visit comes after reports in a section of the media alleged that President Sirisena has alluded to the involvement of an Indian agency in a plot to assassinate him.

Firmly dismissing the reports, Sirisena held a telephonic discussion with Modi earlier this week to clarify the matter.