Wednesday, Jul 10, 2002
Wednesday, Jul 10, 2002 |
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By Amit Baruah
It comes just after a visit by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, to New Delhi last month. ``This visit reflects the importance that the Government of India attaches to enhancing bilateral relations with neighbouring countries and to the promotion of good neighbourliness and enhanced economic cooperation,'' the spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry announced today. This will be the first foreign tour by Mr. Sinha since taking over his new assignment. He will first travel to the Maldives and then to Sri Lanka. Asked whether Mr. Sinha's visit was to have been undertaken by Jaswant Singh earlier, the spokesperson said: "I think in both these cases invitations had been there for our Minister to visit and we have decided to implement these proposals. But I think the fact that our Minister has assumed charge last week provides a certain sense of further importance... to these visits.'' To a question on what message Mr. Sinha would convey to the Sri Lankan leadership on the ongoing peace process in that country, she said, "we will be expressing our continuing support for the restoration of peace and stability in that island nation and the ongoing process of dialogue.'' She specifically referred to the support that India had extended to Sri Lanka's territorial integrity and sovereignty. On the apparent lack of steam in the peace process, she said "I don't think I should make a pronouncement on the manner in which the process is going forward except to underline the support we have expressed for it and the fact that we continue to monitor that process as a neighbouring country, as a close friend and partner of Sri Lanka.'' The visit, she said, would enable New Delhi to acquire an up-to-date assessment of what was happening in the dialogue process. Asked whether Mr. Sinha would raise the issue of the Indian request to extradite the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabakaran, in connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, she said the request for extradition "continued to stand''. The request had been operational since June 1995. It had been renewed on "various occasions'' since then — the last occasion being as recently as April 2002. There had been no change in New Delhi's policy or approach towards the extradition request. The spokesperson was categorical that India would not get involved in the Sri Lankan peace process as had been proposed by Mr. Prabakaran at his press conference earlier this year. During his visit, Mr. Sinha will continue the economic dialogue since the inception of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Talks to review the FTA were held in June in Delhi and in Colombo earlier this month. A task force is being set up to evolve an "FTA II and Beyond'' agreement. In a separate development, the spokesperson announced that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had sent a message of condolence to the Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, following the assassination of the country's Vice-President, Haji Abdul Qadir. Mr. Vajpayee said that Haji Qadir's assassination was an effort by hostile forces to promote instability and intolerance in Afghanistan.
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