NEW DELHI, 20 July 2004 — Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse held fruitful talks yesterday with Indian leaders including his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on a range of issues. The topics included New Delhi’s role in helping rebuild his strife-torn island nation, an official said.
Rajapakse, who arrived in New Delhi late Saturday on his first visit to India since he took office in April, spent about 40 minutes in formal talks with Manmohan Singh after which they attended a working lunch hosted by the Indian leader, an official said.
Earlier in the day, Rajapakse held talks with Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit.
Talks with Natwar Singh focused on a fragile truce between Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels and Colombo brokered by Norway and in place since February 2002, India’s envoy in Colombo Nirupam Sen told reporters..
“The main subjects that came up for discussion — one was an exchange of views on the peace process,” said Sen.
“The foreign minister said India would be able to give some economic assistance for the rehabilitation of the north and the east,” he added, referring to areas under the control of the Tamil Tiger rebels.
India, which once backed Sri Lanka’s rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has since taken a largely hands-off approach to the ethnic Tamil-Sinhalese conflict in Sri Lanka that has claimed over 60,000 lives.
“The others are aspects in which the Sri Lankan prime minister is interested, namely the work of rural reconstruction and rural development ... and certain infrastructure projects,” Sen said. On Sunday, Rajapakse met Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidamabaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Minister for Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu.
Reports said India was looking at new areas for enhancing economic cooperation with Sri Lanka, including agriculture and extending a new line of credit.
Rajapakse is accompanied by Trade Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and Marxist minister Anura Dissanayake, whose JVP, or People’s Liberation Front, had earlier violently enforced a ban on Indian-made products.
The JVP has been accused of killing Sri Lankans who ignored their warnings to boycott Indian products, including pharmaceutical goods and Indian-made vehicles.
Rajapakse called on President A.P.J. Kalam yesterday. He also met UPA chairperson and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
Dixit later said that he had “conveyed the government’s policies which were based on long term Indo-Sri Lankan friendship and upholding of Sri Lankan interests.”
Highlighting the significance of India’s relations with Sri Lanka, sources said these were characterized by close political understanding, growing economic relations and expansion and consolidation in other areas of collaboration.
Besides, an official said that India is “committed to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and to the restoration of a lasting peace” through a “peaceful, negotiated settlement” that meets “just aspirations of all communities and which is consistent with democracy, pluralism and respect for individual rights.”
