The discussions especially focussed on strengthening defence ties, including the negotiation of a bilateral Defence agreement between Sri Lanka and Japan, a communique from the Prime Minister’s office said. Such ties would be an important step towards preventing international terrorism filtering into Sri Lanka, the communique added.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka was grateful to Japan for the assistance rendered so far in the sphere of defence. During the discussions Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe briefed the visiting Japanese State Minister about the recent discussions held with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the proposed counter-terrorism plan to be jointly implemented by India, The Maldives and Sri Lanka. Views were also exchanged about implementing an integrated programme together with India and Japan in several development sectors in Sri Lanka including road development.

Japanese Ambassador Akira Sugiyama, Japanese Embassy officials Takeshi Ozaki and Takehiro Shiota, as well as Tetsuo Kitada of the Japanese Foreign Ministry were also associated in the talks.