Lankan President in Delhi

NEW DELHI, Dec 27 (PTI) — Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga arrived here today on three-day state visit aimed at further bolstering political and economic ties with India, including signing of the first ever landmark free trade pact between the two countries.

The fast track bilateral trade pact is expected to open up two-way trade in diverse fields in a big way, officials from both sides said.

They said both Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Sri Lankan President were keen to enter into a new trade pact. While Indian export to Sri Lanka were to the extent of $ 560 million in 1997, imports from the island nation were only a little over $ 42 million.

Ms Kumaratunga, who received a red carpet welcome at the Delhi airport, was received by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Foreign Secretary K. Raghunath, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Mangala Munasinghe and senior officials. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was also present.

In an unusual departure from past practice, correspondents from print media and television networks were told to board the van for photographers and TV crew by security personnel instead of being allowed to field questions to the visiting dignitary from a closer distance.

After the photo session, Ms Kumaratunga was escorted by Mr Jaswant Singh into the six-door black Mercedes and left without answering any questions.

Ms Kumaratunga, who is leading a high-powered delegation including Culture Minister Lakshman Jayakody and Deputy Health Minister Pavithra Wassiarchchi, will be accorded a ceremonial reception by President K.R. Narayanan at Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow.

She will later hold wide-ranging discussions with Mr Narayanan and Mr Vajpayee on international, regional and bilateral issues. She will also have an interaction with leaders of Indian business and industry.

Mr Vajpayee and Ms Kumaratunga will participate in a joint foundation-stone laying ceremony for the expansion of the Sri Lankan pilgrims rest house in Delhi. It is built on land gifted to Sri Lanka by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957.

The two sides will explore the possibility of giving a substantial boost to tourism. New Delhi has shown interest in encouraging tourists from Buddhist-dominated countries like Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Japan.

During her stay in the capital, Ms Kumaratunga, also the chairperson of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral.

India's disinclination to play a mediatory role in resolving the LTTE problem with Sri Lanka is likely to be conveyed by New Delhi during the parleys.

"It is for Sri Lanka to resolve the issue themselves. There is no shift in India's stand on it," senior External Affairs Ministry officials said when asked if India would agree to any request from Colombo to facilitate mediation with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

They said in response to a question that India's request for extradition of LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran was still with the Sri Lankan Government, and explained that further action on it could be taken only when he was in custody.

On Home Minister L.K. Advani and other central ministers attending the wedding of MDMK leader Vaiko's son in Chennai where Prabhakaran's father was reportedly garlanded, they sought to distance the government from the event saying there was no change in New Delhi's policy.

Specifically asked whether any protest had been lodged by Colombo over this, the officials said they were not aware of it.

On the proposed free-trade agreement, they said details were being worked out, and added, "some fine-tuning still needs to be done in this regard."

During the visit, the two sides will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on setting up of an India-Sri Lanka foundation which would work towards promoting bilateral exchanges in the fields of art, culture, trade, commerce and science and technology.

An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said both countries will contribute Rs two crore each towards establishing the foundation.

Functioning of the foundation will be governed by an independent board and its activities financied by the interest accruing to the initial corpus of Rs four crore, he said.

The officials indicated that Civil Aviation authorities of the two countries would meet in February for further expanding cooperation in air services.

The objective of the proposed trade pact, they said, was to promote growth of trade by removing existing barriers.

New Delhi has already announced lifting of quantitative restrictions to all SAARC countries during the last summit in Colombo.

Ms Kumaratunga had last made a state visit to India in1995 though she had come in between to attend SAARC meet and also on a private vacation.