FLOWERS FOR SIRISENA AND THE CAL BRICK FOR MAHNIDA AND THE CLAN

Lanka notes no protests in India

By adminFebruary 22, 2015 18:26

The Government has noted that there are no more protests in India against Sri Lanka following the defeat of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government.

Deputy Minister V. Radhakrishnan said that usually there are black flag protests when a Sri Lankan Minister or leader visits India but when President Maithripala Sirisena visited India everything was calm and peaceful.

“We would like to see ties between both countries strengthen further,” the Deputy Minister said at an event in Kandy.

The Deputy Minister noted that India is involved in several housing projects in Sri Lanka, including in the north and estate areas.

He said that with the scheduled visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka next month, ties between both countries are expected to further strengthen.

Modi will visit Sri Lanka from 13 to 15 March, the first bilateral visit by an Indian PM to the island nation in over 25- years.

The visit has been scheduled a month after the visit of President, Maithripala Sirisena, to New Delhi.

The previous bilateral visit to Sri Lanka by an Indian Prime Minister was in 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi traveled to Colombo to sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord with the then Sri Lankan President, J. R. Jayewardene.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Colombo in 2008 to attend the SAARC summit and handed over its chairmanship to the then President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

However, he skipped the Commonwealth Summit that Sri Lanka hosted in November 2013, a decision that was strongly criticised by sections in New Delhi and Colombo. (Colombo Gazette)