Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa to ensure equality, justice, peace and respect for the minority in his country.

“Whether it was defence or economy or social development, in every field our past and future are interlinked,” PM Modi said.

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.

Stressing on the urgent need to counter terrorism in the region, PM Modi recalled the terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Day by saying, “Terrorism has been a major threat for our region and both the countries fought against it together. The attack on the Sri Lankans on Easter Day was not only on the country but also on the complete mankind.”

PM Modi also told that he interacted with his Sri Lankan counterpart on ongoing “Joint Economic Project” in Sri Lanka and discussed the measures to increase economic, entrepreneurship and investment between the two countries.

“India has shared a fiduciary relationship in the development works of Sri Lanka. Lines of Credit declared last year by the government will provide support in our developments project,” he added.

Expressing his thanks for the warm welcome by the Indian Prime Minister, ANI was quoted Rajapaksa as saying, “I am pleased to be here on my first official visit abroad after assuming office as a Prime Minister. Today, our discussions were based on the outcome of the discussion that the Prime Minister and President Gotabaya had during his very successful visit to India in November last year.”

Earlier, Rajapaksa was also called on by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Taking it to Twitter, Rajapaksa on his meeting with EAM said, “The broad-ranging discussions focused on expediting ongoing projects and cooperation in a number of sectors such as tourism.”

India’s Minister of External Affairs @DrSJaishankar called on me a short while ago. The broad ranging discussions focused on expediting ongoing projects and cooperation in a number of sectors such as tourism pic.twitter.com/vHZYKAjn2v

— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) February 8, 2020

On Friday, Rajapaksa also met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

As per the schedule, he will head towards Varanasi on Sunday where he will visit Kashi Vishwanath temple and Sarnath Buddhist Temple.