Samaraweera's India visit reflects importance Colombo places on New Delhi: MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday stated that Sri Lanka External Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera's visit of India was highly reflective of the importance Colombo places on its ties with New Delhi.

"The Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister was on his first visit outside his country a mere five days after he was sworn in. He did indicate that his choice of New Delhi as his first destination reflects the importance that the new government of Sri Lanka places on India," MEA official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told the media.

Akbaruddin further stated that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had a fruitful discussion with Samaraweera, where the two leaders discussed issues on which both nations place importance.

"External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has had an extremely cordial, positive and substantive discussion with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera. These discussions took place over three hours and covered the entire expanse of our bilateral ties and were marked by warmth and mutual understanding," he said.

"Today's talks included areas of cooperation, political and economic political reconciliation process in Sri Lanka and efforts of new government in this regard, Indian development partnerships and fishermen-related issues," he added.

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka went to polls, with 19 candidates contesting the elections. Maithiripala Sirisena was voted the new President, beating the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa after securing 51.28 percent of the votes cast.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had both extended their congratulations to President Sirisena on his poll victory.