Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Saturday, 14 March 2015 01:09 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka and his own recent trip to India had turned a new page in cooperation between the two countries.
Addressing the media after bilateral discussions with the Indian delegation led by Prime Minister Modi at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo yesterday, President Sirisena said that although the relationship between the two countries had weakened during the rule of previous regimes, presently this connection has been revived.
“The great cultures of our two countries, which are based on Buddhism and Hinduism, have been together through thousands of years. We have seen the relationship between our countries weakened during the time of some regimes. As a result, it took 28 years for this visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Sri Lanka. We see this as a most fortunate event for the Government and the people of Sri Lanka while we also consider this visit by the Indian Prime Minister as a blessing both to the Government and to the people of Sri Lanka,” Sirisena said.
Speaking further, the President described Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka as a step taken to bolster and expand bilateral relations between the two countries.
Speaking about the agreements that were reached between Sri Lankan and India during this visit, President Sirisena said: “We have reached and agreed on a wide range of cooperation that covers economic and trade relations, health, education, regional security, sea and air transportation and especially the development of the country during my recent visit to India as well as the Indian Prime Minister’s current trip to Sri Lanka, which has turned a new page in the cooperation between our two countries.”
President Sirisena further stated that India and its people had gained a high level of knowledge and Sri Lanka, being a developing country, should aspire to attain greater progress in research, training and the development of physical resources by partnering with technologically advanced countries in the portals of trade and modern commerce.
“I trust this visit will help to further improve current relations and the great historical ties between our two countries and assist in taking relationships with minority communities to greater heights. We invited the Indian Prime Minister to address our Parliament as the highest honour we could confer on him. I hope that this visit will also strengthen, in the most humanitarian way, the democracy and freedom which prevails in India and Sri Lanka, and contribute to a more fruitful relationship between our two countries in the future,” President Sirisena said.
