Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath yesterday said that Sri Lanka and India should work together on global issues.
“Sri Lanka and India should work together on global issues such as terrorism and climate change for which regional and multilateral approaches are required,” he said.
He said that both Sri Lanka and India will continue to work together in taking forward our close partnership, demonstrating the highest level of cooperation. “The responses that we have received in that regard during this visit have been extremely encouraging and pleasing,” he said.
The Minister was speaking at a reception hosted by the India Foundation in his honour at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, yesterday.
The Minister said that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s first overseas visit to India symbolises the closely knit bilateral ties which our nations share.
“India–Sri Lanka relations are founded on historical, civilizational, religious and cultural bonds. These bonds go back to time immemorial; definitely more than 2,500 years,” he said.
The Minister also said that India had given us the gift of Buddhism, which gave rise to a flourishing Buddhist civilization in the island more than two millennia ago, and the influence of Hinduism was weaved into our socio-cultural fabric over the centuries of movement of people and of interactions.
“Along with these religions, literature, languages, architecture, sculpture, an agrarian economy, etc., developed in Sri Lanka. Our Sri Lankan heritage, therefore, essentially has links to India. This historical evolution and religious and cultural bonds together with economic activation were the foundations on which our relationship grew,” he said.
The Foreign Minister added that the largest number of tourists to Sri Lanka is from India, and there is great enthusiasm for Sri Lanka among the Indian intelligentsia and think tanks. “So it is in this positive environment, that I too have joined the President on his visit to India,” he added.
Minister Herath also said that no party has ever secured such a high number of representatives with a two-thirds majority under a single mandate under the present electoral system.
Apart from this quantitative value, its qualitative value is monumental. It is the first time, a single political entity, has won confidence across the island including the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the hill country. “It is this that makes it a people’s mandate from all provinces and across ethnicities and communities,” he added.
The session was chaired by India Foundation President Dr. Ram Madhav.
Former Minister of State for External Affairs and Education of India Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh also spoke.
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