From G Sudhakar Nair
Port Louis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight left the Mauritian capital for his historic visit to Sri Lanka, the final stop of his three-nation tour of Indian Ocean island nations.

Modi, who will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Lanka in 28 years, will tomorrow hold summit talks with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who was in India last month on his first foreign trip after assuming office in January.

Modi will be in Sri Lanka on the third and final leg of his five-day three-nation tour.

The Prime Minister’s visit to Lanka is considered to be an opportunity to further strengthen all aspects of the bilateral relationship.

His trip to Sri Lanka will be the first standalone prime ministerial visit to the island nation since 1987.

“I see this visit as an opportunity to further strengthen our relationship in all its dimensions ? political, strategic, economic, cultural, and above all, people to people contacts,” Modi had said in a pre-departure statement at the beginning of his three-nation visit.

Modi will also address Sri Lankan Parliament during his visit. He will be the first Indian Prime Minister and only the second foreign leader after British Premier David Cameron to visit Jaffna in the war-ravaged Northern province, where he will hand over homes built with the help of Indian assistance.

Some 20,000 such homes were built in Jaffna described by India as “a flagship cooperation project currently in Sri Lanka”.

Modi was the chief guest at Mauritius’ 47th National Day celebrations today and also addressed the Parliament here besides commissioning an India-built naval patrol vessel for Mauritius.

PTI