Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an interview with an Indian magazine, had said he strongly advocated enhanced bilateral partnership with India - country he had a strained relationship with towards latter stage of his rule. 

 The interview had been given to Pioneer, owned by the Express group, in the wake of his recent visit to New Delhi where the former President met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Congress leaders. 

"We have to continue the dialogue with the Indian Government on a regular basis on the economy, fisheries, free trade agreements and so on to build a more focused mutual relationship, " the former President said.

"I appreciate the efforts made in the individual capacity by few to improve the bilateral relationship between the two friendly countries. Effort must be made from both G2G and P2P level in consolidating the relationship," he also added. 

Commenting  on his post-war efforts before 2015, Rajapaksa said, "We have taken huge risks in the process like releasing 12,000 prisoners in 2009 immediately after the war. It could have gone wrong but we fought the war with a humanitarian approach. We realised that though the people fighting were misguided by vested interests, they remained our own. The defence forces must be commended for the remarkable job in the recent war history worldwide. They cleaned up the landmines in the north within one year after the war to facilitate immediate popular election process."

This, he said instilled confidence in the native population reminding them of our humanitarian sentiment and belief in the rule of law.

"We invested over a billion dollars in the northern part of the country to develop infrastructure and better living conditions for our countrymen so their affection could be reciprocated in the next presidential election of 2010, which I won by huge margins.