PM Modi as first Prime Minister of India to visit Lanka in 28 years
COLOMBO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flew in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo in the early hours for a historic visit during which he is expected to hold talks with senior leaders.
PM Modi was received by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickramasinghe at the airport after arriving in Colombo for a two-day visit at 05:25 following an overnight trip to Port Louis in Mauritius a special Air India.
Sri Lanka is the last leg of his three-nation tour of the Indian Ocean island nations that led to the Seychelles and Mauritius.PM Modi, who is the first Prime Minister of India to visit Lanka in 28 years, today held summit talks with the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who was in India last month in his first foreign trip after he took office in January.
He will also have talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickramasinghe.The Prime Minister's visit to Lanka is considered as an opportunity to strengthen all aspects of the bilateral relationship.
His journey to Lanka was also the first visit of the Prime Minister in the autonomous island nation since 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi came here.
"I see this visit as an opportunity to strengthen our relationship in all its dimensions - political, strategic, economic, cultural, and most importantly, contacts between people," he said in his pre-departure statement.
PM Modi also discuss Sri Lankan Parliament during his visit. He was the first Prime Minister of India and only the second foreign leader after British Prime Minister David Cameron to visit Jaffna in the northern province ravaged by war, where he will deliver houses built with the help of Indian assistance.
Some 20,000 of these homes were built in Jaffna described by India as a "current flagship cooperation project in Sri Lanka."It is also expected to meet with leaders of the Tamil National Alliance and other political parties.
PM Modi is accompanied by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Minister of Foreign Affairs S Jaishankar.
COLOMBO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flew in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo in the early hours for a historic visit during which he is expected to hold talks with senior leaders.
PM Modi was received by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickramasinghe at the airport after arriving in Colombo for a two-day visit at 05:25 following an overnight trip to Port Louis in Mauritius a special Air India.
Sri Lanka is the last leg of his three-nation tour of the Indian Ocean island nations that led to the Seychelles and Mauritius.PM Modi, who is the first Prime Minister of India to visit Lanka in 28 years, today held summit talks with the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who was in India last month in his first foreign trip after he took office in January.
He will also have talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickramasinghe.The Prime Minister's visit to Lanka is considered as an opportunity to strengthen all aspects of the bilateral relationship.
His journey to Lanka was also the first visit of the Prime Minister in the autonomous island nation since 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi came here.
"I see this visit as an opportunity to strengthen our relationship in all its dimensions - political, strategic, economic, cultural, and most importantly, contacts between people," he said in his pre-departure statement.
PM Modi also discuss Sri Lankan Parliament during his visit. He was the first Prime Minister of India and only the second foreign leader after British Prime Minister David Cameron to visit Jaffna in the northern province ravaged by war, where he will deliver houses built with the help of Indian assistance.
Some 20,000 of these homes were built in Jaffna described by India as a "current flagship cooperation project in Sri Lanka."It is also expected to meet with leaders of the Tamil National Alliance and other political parties.
PM Modi is accompanied by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Minister of Foreign Affairs S Jaishankar.
