By S Venkat Narayan
NEW DELHI, February 17: Visiting Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has conveyed to India’s leaders here that his government wishes to be friends with both India and China, but will not be aligned with either. It will stay non-aligned vis-a-vis New Delhi and Beijing.
In his talks with President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders here on Monday, Sirisena pointed out that he was paying his first overseas visit as President to India. And he would worship at the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya and at Hindu deity Lord Venkateswara’s temple at Tirupati today on the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivaratri.
President Sirisena said his government wished to maintain cordial relations with China as well.
When his Indian interlocutors wanted to know what his government planned to do about the controversial $1.4-billion Colombo Port City China began building since last September, Sirisena said about 25% of ground work had already been completed. Asking China to pull out at this late stage was neither feasible nor practical because of the heavy damages Sri Lanka would have to pay up due to the tight agreements the previous regime had signed, he explained.
However, President Sirisena assured the Indians that parts of the agreement that dealt with handing over some 80 acres of the 500-acre land to Chinese control would be renegotiated. Instead, it would be given on a 99-year lease like the rest, he added.
The issue may figure in the talks Minister of External Affairs Mangala Samaraweera will hold during his scheduled visit China (February 27-28). President Sirisena himself is likely to visit China during March 26-30. Before that, he will receive Modi in Colombo in mid-March.
In his separate meetings with Mukherjee and Modi, President Sirisena told them: “My government is a one-month-old baby! We need time to settle down and execute our plans.”
His Indian hosts responded positively to the Sirisena Government’s 100-day Programme. They conveyed their happiness to President Sirisena about the steps his government had taken so far, like appointing eminent civilians as Governors of the Northern and Eastern Provinces in place of military commanders, and deciding to return one thousand acres of private land now under the Army’s control to its owners in Valikamam North in the northern part of Jaffna Peninsula, among other things.
Sirisena raised the issue of fishermen from Tamil Nadu indulging in bottom-trawling in Sri Lankan waters and destroying the island’s coral beauty and wealth. Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne gave a detailing briefing on how the methods adopted by Tamil Nadu fishermen were posing a grave danger to the island and hurting the livelihood of its fishermen.
Sri Lanka brought these issues to the attention of the previous government here. But, it chose to do nothing much. “Prime Minister Modi realises that this is a serious matter and we hope his government will do something soon,” a senior member of the Sri Lankan delegation told The Island.
The Indians said they would be happy to offer whatever help the Sirisena government wanted to make to execute its ambitious plans to make Sri Lanka a prosperous country where people of all races could work and live happily together.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arjun Jaitley, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Opposition Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi called on President Sirisena at his Grand Presidential Suite (Chanakya Suite) at Hotel ITC Maurya.
Courtesy:The Island