India, Sri Lanka to hold virtual bilateral summit on September 26

New Delhi [India], September 23 ( Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa will hold a virtual bilateral summit on September 26, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Wednesday.

"The summit will give the opportunity to two leaders to comprehensively review the broad framework of the bilateral relationship soon after Parliamentary polls in Sri Lanka and in context of time-tested friendly ties," the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

The virtual summit is the first official interaction between the leaders after they met in New Delhi in February this year.

Last week, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had telephoned and conveyed their birthday wishes to PM Modi and expressed strong desire and commitment to further strengthen the relationship between the two neighbouring countries.

PM Modi had thanked both the leaders for their warm wishes and conveyed that he is looking forward to work with them to further expand cooperation between the two countries in line with India's Neighbourhood First policy.

"Both Sri Lankan leaders expressed their strong desire and commitment to further strengthen the relationship between the neighbouring countries. They expressed appreciation for the continued bilateral cooperation including in the joint fight against COVID pandemic," the statement added.

( With inputs from ANI )