Indo – Lanka Relations: Going forward by touching base with the past

President Sirisena’s meeting with Prime Minister Modi, in Delhi, this week offers an opportunity to reset bilateral relations to achieve the declared goal of ‘irreversible excellence’. This important visit affords an opportunity to look back at the Joint Statement which was issued after Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe’s discussion with the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in October 2003. Many of the elements of that Joint Statement are relevant even today.