{"id":86373,"date":"2025-09-01T18:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=86373"},"modified":"2025-09-01T22:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T02:03:24","slug":"sri-lankan-president-anura-kumara-dissanayake-makes-a-quick-unannounced-visit-to-katchatheevu-after-vowing-to-safeguard-seas-and-islands-around-the-country-and-resist-any","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=86373","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake makes a quick, unannounced visit to Katchatheevu, after vowing to safeguard \u201cseas and islands\u201d around the country and resist any \u201cexternal pressure\u201d."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake \u2014 who was on Monday (September 1, 2025) in the northern Jaffna district to launch development projects \u2014 made a quick, unannounced visit to Katchatheevu, after vowing to safeguard \u201cseas and islands\u201d around the country and resist any \u201cexternal pressure\u201d. <\/p>\n

Jaffna media was caught by surprise as the President\u2019s trip to the island, by a naval speed boat according to local news reports, was not mentioned in his official itinerary. <\/p>\n

The visit followed a ceremony to begin the expansion of the Myliddy Fisheries Harbour in Jaffna, a project aimed at boosting livelihoods of war-affected fishermen. Speaking at the event, Mr. Dissanayake said: \u201cThe government is committed to safeguarding the surrounding seas, islands, and landmass of the country for the benefit of the people and will not allow any external force to exert influence in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The apparent reference to Katchatheevu drew immediate attention in local Tamil media, in the wake of actor Vijay\u2019s recent remarks at a political rally in Madurai that Katchatheevu must be retrieved. Sri Lanka\u2019s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath previously responded to the actor\u2019s remarks saying: \u201cKatchatheevu belongs to Sri Lanka\u2026it is Sri Lankan territory, and that will never change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at a political rally in Madurai, Mr. Vijay flagged Katchatheevu \u2014 an uninhabited island located 14.5 km south of Delft Island off Jaffna Peninsula, and some 16 km northeast of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu \u2014 as a solution to the periodic arrests faced Tamil Nadu fishermen, on charges of fishing illegally in Sri Lankan territorial waters.<\/p>\n

The conflict, which affects Tamil-speaking, poor fishermen on both sides of the Palk Strait, persists chiefly because of Tamil Nadu boat owners\u2019 reluctance to stop fishing using bottom trawlers, widely considered destructive. For well over a decade now, northern Sri Lankan fishermen, struggling to overcome the impact of a devastating war, have been urging their Indian counterparts to refrain from the practice that has severely depleted their catch.
\nIn April this year, Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil parties told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India must ban bottom trawling in order to resolve the fisheries conflict.<\/p>\n

The once-disputed island of Katchatheevu is a matter settled half a century ago, after the Governments of India and Sri Lanka, under Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, signed two bilateral agreements in 1974 and 1976. All the same, Indian political leaders across parties invoke it periodically, even though Tamil Nadu fishermen are mostly arrested well past Katchatheevu, close to Sri Lanka\u2019s northern coastline.<\/p>\n

Last year, PM Modi\u2019s post on \u2018X\u2019 accusing the Congress of \u201ccallously giving away\u201d the island to Sri Lanka, sparked a controversy. Elaborating on the comment, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar then said the two agreements compromised Indian fishermen\u2019s rights in the Palk Strait. Speaking at a government event in Chennai in May this year, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said retrieving Katchatheevu was \u201cthe only permanent solution\u201d to Tamil Nadu fishermen\u2019s woes.<\/p>\n

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

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

By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka\u2019s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake \u2014 who was on Monday (September 1, 2025) in the northern Jaffna district to launch development projects \u2014 made a quick, unannounced visit to Katchatheevu, after vowing to safeguard \u201cseas and islands\u201d around the country and resist any \u201cexternal pressure\u201d. Jaffna media was caught by surprise …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake makes a quick, unannounced visit to Katchatheevu, after vowing to safeguard \u201cseas and islands\u201d around the country and resist any \u201cexternal pressure\u201d.’ »<\/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\/86373"}],"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=86373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86374,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86373\/revisions\/86374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}