The Indian Foreign Secretary said today that the purpose of his visit was to prepare the groundwork for the impending visit of President Ranil Wickremesinghe to New Delhi on an invitation by the Indian government.
……… I just wanted to share with you what we have been able to achieve in this very short visit of mine. I arrived last night, and this morning I have had the privilege of calling on His Excellency the Foreign Minister, His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka, and also having discussions with my counterpart, the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka. We also had a chance to meet with a few ministers on the sidelines of the lunch.
The purpose of my visit is essentially to prepare for the upcoming visit of the Hon. President of Sri Lanka to India. My discussions earlier today with the Sri Lankan leadership as well as with the Foreign Ministry were essentially focused on trying to ensure that the upcoming visit of the Hon. President of Sri Lanka is actually a point of positive transformation in the relationship. We also discussed the key areas of partnership that we could progress ahead of the visit, the priorities of the Sri Lankan leadership going into the visit, and shared with them the perspective of our leadership on the relationship, the strength of the relationship, different elements of cooperation in the relationship, and elements of our partnership in the years ahead across the entire matrix of economic partnership that India and Sri Lanka enjoy.
As I said, our objective is to ensure that the visit of the Hon. President of Sri Lanka to India is a huge success. He is a well-known leader and a very strong supporter of the relationship. We have worked and cooperated very well in the last 14–16 months, despite the various challenges that Sri Lanka went through, and I can assure him that a very warm welcome awaits him in India.
We eagerly look forward to His Excellency the President’s visit to India and hope to make it a success, not only for his visit but also for our relationship.
