Modi, Rajapaksa meeting will be the milestone for India-Lanka ties
Colombo: Terming the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa as very successful, a senior minister in the Lankan government said the trip by country’s President to New Delhi has turned a new leaf in Indo-Lanka ties.
“It is not the practice to release in public what the two leaders had discussed,” de Silva said. He said that Sri Lanka welcomed the appointment of Sushma Swaraj as the new External Affairs Minister.
“She is someone who is aware of our situation,” the Minister said.
Pressed for an answer on the new Indian government’s insistence on implementing the thirteenth amendment, de Silva said, “Sri Lanka would wish to tackle all outstanding issues through consultations. No one will be able to dictate to us. It is our duty to find solutions to our own problems in our own ways.”
As per the 13th Amendment that followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987, Sri Lankan government had agreed to devolve some authority to the provinces.
