NEW DELHI: PM Modi held talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday and discussed a range of issues related to bilateral ties, including the progress of India-assisted development projects in the island nation.
The two leaders held talks at the Hyderabad House here on the third day and final day of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s India visit.
Earlier today, Wickremesinghe separately met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Wickremesinghe’s India visit comes in the backdrop of controversial media reports that Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has accused Indian intelligence agency RAW of plotting his assassination, a claim firmly rejected as “false” by Colombo.
Both prime ministers discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and ways to further deepen the “historically close and friendly relations” between the two countries, it said.
During the visit, the two sides reviewed the status of the India assisted housing projects in Jaffna. They were also expected to deliberate on the Tamil issue — the reconciliation process and devolution of powers in the Tamil-dominated areas.
Rajnath Singh termed his meeting with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister as fruitful and said that he exchanged views on bilateral cooperation between the two countries on security and terrorism.
The issue of India taking charge of operating Sri Lanka’s loss-making Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota was also understood to have figured in the talks.
On Friday, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi met Mr. Wickremesinghe and discussed cooperation between the two countries.