{"id":82074,"date":"2018-10-17T21:52:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T03:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=82074"},"modified":"2018-10-17T14:50:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T21:50:26","slug":"lankan-president-phones-modi-to-deny-he-said-india-is-involved-in-assassination-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/10\/17\/lankan-president-phones-modi-to-deny-he-said-india-is-involved-in-assassination-plot\/","title":{"rendered":"Lankan President phones Modi to deny he said India is involved in assassination plot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

Colombo, October 17 (newsin.asia): The President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena called Indian Prime Minister Narendra \u00a0Modi on the telephone on Wednesday, to categorically reject reports in \u00a0sections of the media about him alluding to India\u2019s involvement in any manner in an alleged plot to assassinate him and the former Defense Secretary of Sri Lanka Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

The Lankan President said that the mischievous and mala-fide reports were utterly baseless and false and seemed intended to\u00a0 create misunderstanding between the two leaders\u00a0 as well as damage the relations\u00a0 between the two friendly countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lankan<\/div>\n

President Sirisena apprised the Indian Prime Minister of the urgent steps being taken by him personally\u00a0 and the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 government of Sri Lanka, to publicly reject these false reports.<\/p>\n

In this context Sirisen also recalled his meeting with the High Commissioner of India earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

The Lankan President also stated that the he regards the Indian Prime Minister as a true friend of Sri Lanka and also as a close personal friend.<\/p>\n

Sirisena stressed that he greatly values\u201d the mutually beneficial ties between India and Sri Lanka, and remains steadfast on working with the Indian Prime Minister for further strengthening the ties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s Reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Indian Prime Minister appreciated the prompt steps taken by the Sri Lankan President and his government\u00a0 to firmly refute the malicious reports by publicly clarifying matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Modi reiterated India\u2019s emphasis on following the Neighborhood First policy\u201d and the priority the Government of India and he personally attach to developing even stronger all round cooperation between the two countries.<\/p>\n

The Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n

Explaining the background to the controversy, a press release from the Presidential Media Division (PMD) said\u00a0\u00a0 that at the \u00a0cabinet meeting on Tuesday, there were \u00a0discussions \u00a0on the alleged plot to assassinate President Sirisena and former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

The President, who chaired the meeting, emphasized the need to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged assassination plot.<\/p>\n

In these circumstances, it is very unfortunate that some parties with vested interests resort to spreading malevolent manipulations detrimental to the existing good relations between the two countries as well as the excellent personal rapport between the two leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

India and Sri Lanka have maintained cordial relations and cooperation since the inception of this government. Several highest level visits have taken place between the two nations that have resulted in strengthening cooperation in many fields,\u00a0 the press release noted.<\/p>\n

The \u00a0High Commissioner of India Taranjit Singh Sandhu called on the President on Wednesday in which all matters were clarified and good bilateral relations were reassured,\u201d the release added.<\/p>\n

(The featured image at the top shows Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena talking to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the phone on Oct 17,2018<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, October 17 (newsin.asia): The President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena called Indian Prime Minister Narendra \u00a0Modi on the telephone on Wednesday, to categorically reject reports in \u00a0sections of the media about him alluding to India\u2019s involvement in any manner in an alleged plot to assassinate him and the former Defense Secretary of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-sirisena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82074","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=82074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}