India encourages reconciliation process with Sri Lanka

Tuesday, 10 March 2015 01:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: India will continue to encourage a process of reconciliation with Sri Lanka, said Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on 9 March. Jaishankar’s statement comes days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka to enhance bilateral ties. India has often urged the Sri Lankan Government to provide greater autonomy to its Tamil population which accounts for a sizeable number in the country, one of the main issues of reconciliation process. In January this year, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had even urged her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera to ensure political reconciliation of the Tamil population. “Our role has been really to encourage that (reconciliation) process happening and even when EAM (External Affairs Minister) was there, representatives of different political parties came to see EAM, different government leaders who met EAM discussed it in different ways and we continue to be encouraging. There is a whole history out here which sort of right now centres around the implementation of the 13th amendment,” said Jaishankar. The 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution followed the India-Sri Lanka Accord signed in 1987 by the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President H.R. Jayewardene. The amendment seeks devolution of powers to provincial councils which were created after the accord. India says Sri Lanka is slow in providing greater autonomy to Tamils. Jaishankar also confirmed that Swaraj during her visit to the island nation last week had raised the issue with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe about his controversial interview to a Tamil news channel in India. Wickremesinghe had kicked up a row by justifying shootings of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy. He denied any human rights violations by Sri Lankan navy saying Indian fishermen poached on their waters. “We recognise today that this is an issue, it is a livelihood issue which clearly has larger humanitarian aspects to it and we have to sit down, we expect to sit down and work out with the Sri Lankans how we are going to handle this to our mutual satisfaction,” said Jaishankar. Modi will visit the neighbouring country between 13-14 March as part of his three-nation visit to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, beginning 10 March. Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka will be the fourth interaction between the two countries since he came to power last May. During his visit, the Indian Prime Minister will hold talks with President Maithripala Sirisena, sign a slew of agreements, address the Sri Lankan Parliament and attend a business meet by the Ceylon Chambers of Commerce. Modi is also expected to tighten defence and security cooperation and push for final approval for a 500 MW power plant to be built by India’s state-run National Thermal Power Corporation under a 2012 agreement in Trincomalee, a strategic port in eastern Sri Lanka, Indian officials said. The two sides were also in talks to upgrade military training. Modi will make the pledges during his visit to the nations after decades of neglect by successive Indian governments. His trip to Sri Lanka will be the first in 28 years by an Indian prime minister.

Indian PM tweets about SL visit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday tweeted about his visit to Sri Lanka expressing his enthusiasm about the trip.

PM Modi said that he was “looking forward to enhancing ties with the friendly nations”, referring to Sri Lanka as well as Mauritius and Seychelles. Meanwhile, specifically referring to his visit to Sri Lanka, PM Modi has tweeted: “I embark on my visit to Sri Lanka with the joy and confidence that the visit will make India-Sri Lanka relations even stronger in the years to come.” He has also mentioned that apart from addressing the parliament in Sri Lanka, he would also be visiting the Mahabodi and Jaffna. Modi is due to arrive in Sri Lanka on 13 March on his two-day visit and he is the first Indian PM to visit the country in 28 years.