Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe reiterated that the country's navy has the right to shoot anyone who intrudes into the territorial waters.

He made this comment in an interview with NDTV, on the heels of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to the island nation.

Speaking to NDTV, Wickremesinghe said, "The Lankan navy has the right to shoot in any part of the country if anyone enters territorial waters, this is nothing new".

The main issue, he said, was bottom trawling by fishing boats and it has to stop. "That has been acknowledged by all sides."

Earlier this month, Wickremesinghe told a Tamil news channel, "If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. If he gets killed... Law allows me to do that... Why are you coming into our waters? Stay on the Indian side."

Wickremesinghe said the two countries were working on a solution to the issue. "The foreign minister (Sushma Swaraj) when she was here, told me that they are trying to get them (the fishermen) moved out," he said. Swaraj visited Lanka ahead of PM Modi's visit.

PM Modi, Wickremesinghe said, had "reached out" to Sri Lanka and the Lankans had responded.

"It makes a case that there should be regular visits by Indian PM to Lanka, but he covered every part and showed that India stood for all Sri Lankans. While we have to settle the outstanding problems in the North, India was not thinking only of the north but all Sri Lanka," he added.
(With inputs from NDTV)