Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe here on Saturday held discussions with PM Narendra Modi on the last day or his three-day tour to India. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in a statement, said the two leaders exchanged views on regional and global issues and reviewed the progress in implementation of various decisions taken during the high level exchanges in the recent past.
Wickremesinghe arrived India in the backdrop of controversial media reports that the Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has accused Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing of plotting his assassination, a claim firmly rejected as "false" by Colombo. Also the internal squabbling between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe has come out open, raising concerns in New Delhi.
The MEA statement said that both the leaders discussed the progress of India-assisted development projects in the island nation. "This multi-faceted partnership has been marked by close contacts at the highest political level, growing trade and investment, wide ranging development cooperation, increasing linkages in the fields of education, health, infrastructure, connectivity and capacity building and broadening people to people contacts," the statement said.
The issue of India taking charge of operating Sri Lanka's loss-making Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota was also understood to have figured in the talks. Earlier in the day, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval also separately called on the visiting Lankan leader. Wickremesinghe and Singh discussed issues related to security and anti-terror cooperation between the two nations. In her meeting with the Lankan premier, Swaraj reviewed the progress of India-assisted development projects in the island nation.
Meanwhile a Sri Lankan minister in Colombo said the internal squabbling between President and Prime Minister in his country has left the public unhappy and dissatisfied. Addressing a gathering at Pannipitiya in a Colombo suburb, Minister of National Integration, Reconciliation and Official Languages Mano Ganesan asked the two leaders to "sort out" their issues to ensure the free democratic environment created by this 'yahapalana' (good governance) government.
Sirisena, according to the media, had reportedly told former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that it was difficult to work with Wickremesinghe as prime minister.
In April, Wickremesinghe had successfully defeated a joint move by Sirisena and Rajapaksa to oust him. The premier was able to record a resounding victory in the no trust motion with the support of Tamil and Muslim minority parties. Wickremesinghe was Sirisena's main sponsor in the 2015 presidential election. Sirisena got elected with the support from the Wickremesinghe-led United National Party (UNP), Ganesan-led Tamil-minority party and others and the Muslims party
