{"id":39441,"date":"2015-03-11T19:56:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T23:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=39441"},"modified":"2015-03-11T21:15:22","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T01:15:22","slug":"narendra-modi-will-be-the-first-indian-prime-minister-to-visit-jaffna-and-talaimannar-in-northern-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=39441","title":{"rendered":"Narendra Modi will be the First Indian Prime Minister to Visit Jaffna and Talaimannar in Northern Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Suhasini Haidar<\/strong><\/p>\n

India is \u201cintent on strengthening ties\u201d with Sri Lanka, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, as he announced a slew of projects to be inaugurated while Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Sri Lanka on March 13th and 14th. <\/p>\n

\"PMO<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/narendramodi\/status\/574562075495677953<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Modi, who is the first Indian Prime Minister to make a bilateral visit to the neighbouring island in 28 years, will be commissioning a railway line in Talaimannar, inaugurating the cultural centre in Jaffna, and also handing over homes that have been build by India in the Northern province.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia has been a significant contributor to the rebuilding process in Sri Lanka,\u201d Mr. Jaishankar told journalists at a press conference to discuss the Prime Minister\u2019s 3-nation \u2018Indian Ocean foray\u2019 including the Seychelles and Mauritius that begins on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister will reach Colombo on March 13, and will have talks with President Maithripala Sirisena. He will attend a lunch hosted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe who has set off a storm with his recent remarks on \u201cshooting Indian fishermen\u201d if they trespass into Sri Lankan waters. Seeking to downplay the controversy over those remarks, Mr. Jaishankar said the remarks had been clarified, and that since it was an \u201cemotive issue\u201d he would not like to comment further, but \u201call that needed to be said\u201d had been conveyed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during her meeting with Mr. Wickremsinghe on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Hindu in Delhi, Sri Lankan analyst P. Saravanamuttu (Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo) doubted the Sri Lankan Prime Minister\u2019s comments to overshadow Mr. Modi\u2019s visit. \u201cIn Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickremsinghe is under criticism from all quarters with pressure to prove his \u2018nationalistic\u2019 credentials, and especially over a reliance on India,and his comments may be seen in that context.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Colombo, the highlight of Mr. Modi\u2019s visit will possibly be his address to the Sri Lankan parliament. He had in a similar way addressed the parliaments in Thimphu and Kathmandu during his visits there in 2014. He will also go to Anuradhapura to see religious sites, along with his trip to Jaffna and Talaimannar, where he will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit.<\/p>\n

He is expected take up India\u2019s concerns over the implementation of the 13th amendment and rehabilitation of Tamil refugees in his bilateral talks as well as during his meeting with the governor of the Northern Province in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

Mr. Modi will also look to \u201cpromote reconciliation\u201d during meetings with leaders of all political parties, the FS said, including the Tamil National Alliance that rules in the Tamil-majority Northern Provinces, the ruling SLFP and UNP, including former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. However no meeting has been planned with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa during Mr. Modi\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

While ruling out any defence cooperation agreement will be signed during the Sri Lanka visit, Mr. Jaishankar said there was a \u201ccommon thread\u201d to the Prime Minister\u2019s outreach to all three countries vis a vis India\u2019s maritime influence. In the Seychelles as well as in Mauritius, India has been assisting with patrolling and funding economic development. In Mauritius, where the PM is the chief guest at the National Day, Mr. Modi will also commission a \u201cCoast Ship Barracuda\u201d offshore patrol vehicle that has been acquired with Indian assistance.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jaishankar refused to comment on why Prime Minister Modi wasn\u2019t travelling to the Maldives as had been earlier planned. While a Maldivian foreign ministry statement had said the visit had been \u201cput off by mutual agreement\u201d, sources in the MEA said the trip had been cancelled because India didn\u2019t want to get into \u201cdomestic issues\u201d over the arrest of former President Mohammad Nasheed. \u201cWe are here to discuss the PM\u2019s upcoming visit, and the Maldives was never announced as a part of his itinerary.\u201d <\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Suhasini Haidar India is \u201cintent on strengthening ties\u201d with Sri Lanka, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, as he announced a slew of projects to be inaugurated while Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Sri Lanka on March 13th and 14th. https:\/\/twitter.com\/narendramodi\/status\/574562075495677953 Mr. Modi, who is the first Indian Prime Minister to make a bilateral visit to …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Narendra Modi will be the First Indian Prime Minister to Visit Jaffna and Talaimannar in Northern Sri Lanka.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39444,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39441\/revisions\/39444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}