Peiris invites Sushma Swaraj to visit Sri Lanka

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday said that Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris had extended an invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to visit Sri Lanka in his meeting with her, which covered substantive issues concerning both India and Sri Lanka.

"The Sri Lanka Foreign Minister has invited the External Affairs Minister to visit the country at an appropriate date. As you know India and Sri Lanka has a joint commission, the External Affairs Minister has accepted the invitation. The dates will be worked out soon," said MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.

Breifing about the meeting between the two leaders, Akbaruddin said, "The discussions covered all substantive issues that India and Sri Lanka are engaged on an ongoing basis on and on about. Primary to this our issues relates to the fishermen. And both minister discussed this issue and felt that their needs to be a long term solution to this."

During the course of the meeting, Swaraj also thanked Prof. G. L. Peiris and the Sri Lankan President for adopting a fast tracked approach towards repatriation of Indian fishermen who were taken into custody by Sri Lanka.

Akbaruddin also informed that in this year alone around 800 fishermen were repatriated or are in the process of repatriation.

The two leaders also discussed economic ties between the two countries. He said that the Sri Lanka Foreign minister had met Andhra Chief Minister yesterday regarding investment from Sri Lanka to India.

"This will be the largest investment from Sri Lanka to India approx 1 billion dollars. This relates to a Garment city in Visakhapatnam. Also there was a discussion about Indian investment in Sri Lanka," he added.

He said that the both leaders also discussed the issues relating to the trade sector, and felt the need to address these issues.

"There was also a discussion on Indian development project and Indian projects in Sri Lanka," he added.