Indian Foreign Secretary in town tomorrow

Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar will arrive in Sri Lanka to hold talks with Sri Lankan officials and Lankan leaders on 12 January according to Indian media.

Jaishankar, who will be arriving from the Maldives in the morning, will immediately go into meetings with the Lankan Foreign Secretary, Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister, The New Indian Express reported.

The Tamil parties have also expressed a wish to meet him but it is still not certain whether the official will find time within the tight schedule of his one day visit, the report said.

The main purpose of his visit is to pave the way for the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting in Colombo in February, sources said.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is scheduled to attend the Joint Commission meeting next month. Swaraj is also expected to visit Jaffna where she is likely to hand over the Indian-built Duraiappah Stadium.

This will be Jaishankar’s first stand-alone visit as Foreign Secretary, and is officially described as a routine one. But political circles attach importance to the visit given the fact that the Lankan parliament converted itself into a Constitutional Assembly on Saturday, to draft a new constitution for the country.

The Foreign Secretary is also likely to urge the Sri Lankan government to get going on the Sampur 500 MW joint venture power project which has been stalled since it was initiated in 2006.