“Our region is blessed to have given to the world the invaluable gift of Buddha and his teachings. Buddhism & its various strands are deep seated in our governance, culture & philosophy,” he said while addressing a huge gathering.
“The biggest challenge to Sustainable World Peace today is not necessarily from conflict between the nation states. It is from mindsets, thought streams, entities & instruments rooted in idea of hate & violence,” he said.
The Prime Minister expressed serious concern over rising incidents of terrorism, which threatens peace and development across the world.
“The menace of terrorism in our region is a clear manifestation of this destructive emotion of hatred in mindsets. These ideologies of hate and their proponents in our region are closed to notion of dialogue & hence only open to causing death & destruction,” he lamented.
The Indian PM also announced that Air India will have direct flights between Colombo and Varanasi from August 2017.