Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said India and Sri Lanka have to rethink its national security strategies especially in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terror attacks and that assistance from India in this regard would be much appreciated, in an address to the press at Hyderabad House in New Delhi yesterday.Reiterating what President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said during his state visit earlier, the two leaders, in a joint press interaction emphasized the need for joint action to root out terrorism in the region.
“Terrorism is a major threat in our region. Both our countries have fought this problem vigorously. In April last year, there were barbaric terrorist attacks on Easter Day in Sri Lanka. These were attacks on the entire humanity,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.Premier Rajapaksa thanked Indian Prime Minister Modi for visiting Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. He said the visit provided Sri Lanka with immense strength to come to terms with the tragedy.

He said India has always assisted Sri Lanka to enhance its capabilities in intelligence and counter-terrorism, and the country looked forward to continued support in this regard.The Prime Minister thanked Prime Minister Modi for his Government’s “Neighbourhood First” policy and the priority that he attaches to relations with Sri Lanka. We agreed that our cooperation is multi-faceted, with priority given to a number of areas, including security, economic, cultural and social sectors.
The discussions between Premier Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Modi premised on the outcome of the discussions that Prime Minister Modi held with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his State Visit to India in November last year.The Prime Minister also appreciated Prime Minister Modi’s offers of 400 million dollars as a credit line to enhance the economy of Sri Lanka and another 50 million dollar credit line for our efforts in combating terrorism. We discussed how to follow-up on these offers that was made during President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit in November last year.
He said another topic of our discussion was the progress of ongoing projects that are being implemented in Sri Lanka with Indian assistance. PM Rajapksa has requested Prime Minister Modi to consider further assistance to expand the housing project to all parts of the island.Rajapaksa said Prime Minister Modi and he also discussed how Sri Lanka and India could work together and how Sri Lanka could benefit out of certain economic sectors where India is strongly positioned as one of the world’s growing economies.