MEA confirms Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's India visit from Feb 8-11

Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday anunced that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will be on a state visit to India from February 8 to February 11. 

While dressing press at National Capital, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will be on a state visit to India from February 8 to 11. He will arrive on February 7. February 8 will be main engment day where he will hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi." 

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Sri Lankan PM to visit Varanasi, Sarnath, Bodhgaya, and Tirupati

Informing furr about Sri Lankan Prime Minister's visit, MEA stated that after PM Rajapaksa's official engment in Delhi,  Sri Lankan Prime Minister will visit Varanasi, Sarnath, Bodhgaya, and Tirupati.

Raveesh Kumar also pointed out that re has been a lot of high-level visits between two countries with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksha choosing India as first destination for his visit after he took to office of Sri Lankan President. 

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Mahinda's first official foreign visit

Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed Prime Minister of Sri Lanka by his bror Gotabaya Rajapaksa following his decisive win in Sri Lanka's presidential election in vember last year. Earlier in first week of January, Sri Lanka's Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena h visited New Delhi to meet with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. External Affairs Minister Jaishankar h also traveled to Colombo in vember as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convey his greetings to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. 

During Gotabaya Rajapaksa's visit in vember last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi h anunced a $450 million line of credit to Sri Lanka, including $50 million to fight terrorism.

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(With inputs from ANI)