BY S VENKAT NARAYAN Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 21: Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit New Delhi in September to speak on India-Sri Lanka relations, the Sunday Island has learnt.
Disclosing this, Dr Subrahmanyam Swamy, a member of the Rajya Sabha and a senior leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told this correspondent: “I have invited him to visit New Delhi to speak on relations between our two countries on September 12.”
Rajapaksa will speak on peace and security in South Asia and bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and India with special emphasis on terrorism, Dr Swamy said.
Dr Swamy will send a team to Colombo shortly to finalize Rajapaksa’s programme in the Indian capital.
This will be Rajapaksa’s first visit to New Delhi since May 2014, when he came here as President to attend Narendra Modi’s inauguration as Prime Minister in May 2014. As President, he had visited India several times.
Rajapaksa also has an invitation from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia (FCC) here to speak to India-based representatives of the global media.