Ranil calls on senior Indian ministers to strengthen ties

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during the meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at Hotel Taj Palace Delhi

Reuters:  Visiting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on 15 September met India’s senior ministers to deepen human and economic links between the two countries.

Wickremesinghe called on India’s Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and discussed various projects.

Earlier in the day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured Wickremesinghe of his commitment in infrastructure, railways, energy, community development projects, agriculture, capacity building, science and technology, space and civil nuclear field.

Both the countries have also agreed to fight together against militancy and work for security and stability in their maritime waters.

Wickremesinghe arrived in India on 14 September, on his first international tour since assuming office after the recently-concluded elections.

India and Sri Lanka share a relationship more than 2,500 years old. But India is also concerned about Sri Lanka’s treatment of minority Tamils, whose separatist insurgency was crushed in 2009 amid allegations of widespread atrocities against civilians by Colombo’s armed forces. Tamils share India’s main Hindu faith.

For its part, Sri Lanka has long fumed over poaching and illegal fishing by Indian fishermen that it says deplete the catches of its own fishermen.

Wickremesinghe will leave the country on 16 September.