Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa offered prayers at the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi on Sunday.

Rajapaksa reached India on Friday on a four-day visit during which he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday and the meeting between the two leaders was focused on promoting joint economic projects in Sri Lanka and enhancing bilateral relations over trade and investment.

They also discussed the measures to increase people to people contact between the two countries and increase tourism between them.

On his arrival at the Lal Bahadur Shastri airport, he was given a warm welcome by the senior officials and then drove straight to the Kashi Vishwanath temple where he participated in the ‘puja’ in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

The puja was conducted by a team of pundits who also offered prasad to the visiting dignitary after the aarti.

After this, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister visited the Kaal Bhairav temple to offer prayers.

Rajapaksa is further scheduled to visit the Sarnath, 10 kilometers from Varanasi, after a brief halt at the hotel. There he is scheduled to pay tributes at the Dhamek Stupa where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon to five disciples after attaining enlightenment.

Earlier, Rajapaksa also met the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind and discussed the measures to strengthen ties between the two nations.

Taking it to Twitter, he said, “At the meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind of India we discussed strengthening the already existing ties between the two nations in areas of politics, development, security, trade and cultural sectors. Expertise from India in vocational training was another area of discussion.”

At the meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind of India we discussed strengthening the already existing ties between the two nation in areas of politics, development, security, trade and cultural sectors. Expertise from India in vocational training was another area of discussion. pic.twitter.com/Lj4gT4cgUx

— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) February 9, 2020

During his yesterday’s meeting with his Indian counterpart, Rajapaksa discussed ongoing “Joint Economic Project” in Sri Lanka and the measures to increase economic, entrepreneurship and investment between the two countries.