Virtual summit: Sri Lanka, India PMs to discuss politics, economics

COLOMBO: The prime ministers of Sri Lanka and India are scheduled to have a Virtual Bilateral Summit on Saturday.

This was confirmed on Wednesday in a statement from Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry.

This is the first Virtual Summit level interaction by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa with a foreign leader since assuming premiership last month, the statement added.

Rajapaksa said in a Twitter message that he was looking forward to interacting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the virtual summit.

“We expect to review the multifaceted bilateral relationship between our nations, ranging from politics, economics, defense, tourism and other areas of mutual interest,” he added.

The Foreign Ministry also said: “On the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on August 6, 2020, both leaders agreed to review the multifaceted bilateral relationship through the scheduled Virtual Summit.”

It added: “The summit level interaction is expected to focus on the full gamut of bilateral engagement inter-alia political, economic, finance, development, defense and security spheres, educational, tourism and cultural as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.”

Relevant subject ministers and senior officials of both countries will associate the leaders at the summit, according to the statement.