India, Lanka try to hash out sticking points

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 26

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who arrived in the capital yesterday on a four-day visit, today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both the leaders discussed many of the bilateral issues, including that of fishermen and taking forward the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperative Agreement (ETCA).

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Significantly, the press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said India welcomed Sri Lanka co-sponsoring the Resolution “Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka” at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last month. Also that India “expressed the earnest hope that recommendations on the reconciliation would be completed within the stipulated timeframe of two years’’.

The Tamil issue and the alleged human rights violations by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces at the end of the conflict with the LTTE in late 2009 has been raised at various international human rights forums. India, privately, has also pushed Sri Lanka to implement the promise of the devolution of political power to the Tamils. But successive governments in Colombo have been slow on the move.

The two leaders today also welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for ‘Cooperation in Economic Projects’, which outlines the agenda for bilateral economic cooperation in the foreseeable future. The MoU was signed after the meeting between Modi and Wickremesinghe today.

PM Modi is scheduled to travel to Colombo in the middle of next month to participate in the Vesak Day celebrations.