Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to meet PM Modi and hold bilateral talks

Newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived in New Delhi for his first State visit. President Rajapaksa is in India after PM Modi invited him to strengthen the ties between the two countries. 

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First State visit

President Rajapaksa reached New Delhi on Thursday and will be in the country for three days. He will be meeting PM Modi on Friday to start bilateral talks. 

A plethora of issues including fulfilling aspirations of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, the situation in the Indian Ocean region and steps to boost trade and investment ties are likely to figure in the talks. Last week, India said that it was looking forward to working closely with the new Sri Lankan government and hoped that it would be able to fulfill the aspirations of the Tamil community in that country. 

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Before leaving for India, he tweeted, "Leaving for my first state visit to India and looking forward to strengthening bilateral relations with Shri Narendra Modi and Govt of India." And on landing, he thanked the country for the warm welcome. He will also be meeting his counterpart Ram Nath Kovind. 

The 70-year-old leader stormed to victory in Sri Lanka's presidential elections, the results of which came on November 17. He trounced his nearest rival Sajith Premadasa by a margin of over 13 lakh votes - 52.25 per cent of votes polled against 41.99 per cent.

India's Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar also visited Sri Lanka soon after President Rajapaksha took over as the President.

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(With inputs from PTI)