India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his visiting Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Hyderabad House on Thursday and held bilateral discussions.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who arrived in New Delhi yesterday, participated as a Guest of Honor in the Opening Session of 5th Global Conference on Cyber Space 2017 held at the Pullman Hotel in Aero City in New Delhi today.
During a luncheon meeting hosted by Prime Minister Modi for the visiting Sri Lankan Premier the Hyderabad House today, two sides discussed an entire gamut of bilateral relations and ways to deepen historically close and friendly relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Modi has assured India’s full support to the digital reconstruction work planned to be carried out in Sri Lanka’s education sector in view of the 70th independence commemoration of Sri Lanka.
Prime Minister Modi said India will take a leading role to support Sri Lanka’s pilot project to provide computer tablets to all school children and to provide expert assistance necessary to create the necessary Sinhala and Tamil software for those as well as to work out an IT coordination plan for the program.
The two prime ministers also exchanged views on energy security and food security.
Emphasizing the need to maintain the Indian Ocean as a peace zone and the need for free naval conveyance, the two leaders focused the discussions on the cooperative action need to be taken in that regard.
Indian Prime Minister Modi pointed out that accelerated development plans should be implemented to meet the aspirations of the youth. They also discussed how to deal with the challenges ahead in implementing the development plans.
Discussions also focused on accelerating the development programs expected to be jointly implemented by India and Sri Lanka while directing the President’s attention also on the projects.
The Indian Prime Minister emphasized that through the development plans, opportunities will be created not only for generating assets in Sri Lanka but also for employment.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka is prepared to take every possible step towards accelerating Sri Lanka-India joint ventures. He expressed hope that some of the issues that have arisen will be resolved urgently.
Prime Minister Modi commended his Sri Lankan counterpart for his efforts to strengthen the relations between the two countries.
Premier Modi said that, amidst internal political pressure, Wickremesinghe has been extensively involved in strengthening the friendship between India and Sri Lanka and expanding the relationship.
