{"id":66105,"date":"2017-05-14T15:02:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T22:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=66105"},"modified":"2017-05-14T15:02:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T22:02:16","slug":"modi-invites-mr-to-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/05\/14\/modi-invites-mr-to-india\/","title":{"rendered":"MODI INVITES MR TO INDIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ravi Ladduwahetty\u00a0Courtesy Ceylon Today<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India for a deep political dialogue.<\/p>\n

The invitation was extended to the former President at a closed door meeting with the visiting Indian Premier, which took place at the Indian High Commission premises, 44, Galle Road, Colombo 3.<\/p>\n

It was a closed door one- on- one chat where no politics was discussed, but, according to top political sources, the meeting had lasted for a little over an hour.<\/p>\n

It was a very friendly and cordial chat but politics was not discussed, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Ceylon Today by telephone last afternoon, but sibling and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told Ceylon Today that Premier Modi had invited former President Rajapaksa to India for a deep political discussion.<\/p>\n

When pointed out to the former President, by this newspaper, that the friendly chat with visiting Indian Prime Minister, which was said to have lasted for a little over an hour at 1 a.m., could not have been idle prattle or inane gossip, Rajapaksa said “Various newspapers have reported that the meeting lasted one hour, others said 30 minutes and someone else said 15 minutes and I cannot truly say how long the meeting lasted and I can’t remember what was discussed. But, no politics was discussed.”<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan delegation to the meeting comprised former President Rajapaksa, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former External Affairs Minister of that Government and incumbent Chairman of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Prof. G.L. Peiris.<\/p>\n

The members of the Indian delegation who accompanied Modi to that meeting were, National Security Adviser to the Indian Prime Minister and former Director of the Indian Intelligence Bureau Ajit Kumar Doval, Foreign Secretary Subramanyam Jaishankar and the incumbent Indian High Commissioner to Colombo Tharanjit Singh Sandhu.<\/p>\n

However, it was a closed door meeting between Rajapaksa (Senior) and Modi inside the conference room while the others had to wait outside, Gotabaya Rajapaksa told this newspaper.<\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa praised India- Sri Lanka bilateral cooperation over the years. “Rajapaksa’s talks with Modi were a very cordial discussion and he was happy with India-Lanka cooperation over the years,” Indian High Commissioner Taranjith Singh Sandhu said.<\/p>\n

Modi met Rajapaksa at the latter’s request, the High Commissioner said. Earlier, Rajapaksa claimed that India and Sri Lanka may have signed deals on economic cooperation before Prime Minister Modi’s arrival in the country.<\/p>\n

“The information I have is that all deals have already been signed. So, the Indian Prime Minister’s arrival or non- arrival would be immaterial,” Rajapaksa told reporters in Kandy, hours before the Air India special aircraft flying Premier Modi to Colombo landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport .<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa said he held nothing against Modi’s visit. “The problem will be only if they sign agreements. I understand these have already been signed,” Rajapaksa Senior said in Kandy.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Modi has expressed India’s commitment and support to Sri Lanka and added that India will be a strong development partner for the island nation’s growth and prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ravi Ladduwahetty\u00a0Courtesy Ceylon Today Visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India for a deep political dialogue. The invitation was extended to the former President at a closed door meeting with the visiting Indian Premier, which took place at the Indian High Commission premises, 44, Galle Road, Colombo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}