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| Wednesday, 22 October 2003 |
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Sri Lanka's fragile peace process is making steady but slow progress with the coming months crucial, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday in New Delhi. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, on a three-day visit to India, said he remained optimistic despite the LTTE's suspension of peace talks in April. "Finding a political solution to the two-decade old ethnic problem is a slow process as the road to peace is bumpy," the Premier said in an interview with the United News of India (UNI) agency. "I am not pessimistic at all," he said. "For the past few months negotiations (have been) going slow. My government is now awaiting the LTTE's response to the government proposals for an interim administration for the Northern part of the country," he added. "Once the LTTE submits their proposals, peace talks will resume. However, the next few months are crucial," the Premier told UNI. After meeting Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said on Monday that India supported the peace process and wanted to see progress. "India ... is in favour of the devolution of powers but we also maintain that the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka should not be affected." India has shunned direct involvement in Sri Lanka since it withdrew troops from the Island in March 1990 after a 32-month presence. India lost 1,200 troops who were sent as part of a peace pact but wound up battling the Tigers. Advani said the issue of the extradition of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran was not discussed during his talks with Wickremesinghe, but added, "India has always indicated that this is a major issue which our courts have also wanted." Strengthening regional air links was the focus of discussions between Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and Indian Aviation Minister Rajiv Prathap yesterday. They paid attention to developing Sri Lanka as the region's aviation hub with Indian assistance, noting that it could be a commercial gateway to India. They agreed to convene a meeting of civil aviation and tourism officials of the SAARC region in this connection. They reviewed the challenges faced by the aviation sector in the region and discussed strategies to overcome the obstacles stifling the growth of the airline industry in South Asia. The Indian Minister agreed to let SriLankan add one more frequency to New Delhi and also to grant fifth freedom traffic rights to Indian Airlines via Sri Lanka. The Indian Minister apprised the Prime Minister about the privatisation of international airports at New Delhi and Mumbai. At a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe stressed the importance of strengthening ties between Sri Lankan and Indian tea producers and working together to capture a bigger share of the tea market. They observed that a strategic alliance among the tea manufacturing countries would be a boon for the industry. They discussed current trends in the apparel industry of the two countries, which will face stiff competition from other countries when the quota system is abolished in 2005. The Prime Minister also held extensive discussions on strengthening Indo-Lanka relations with Opposition Leader Sonia Gandhi yesterday. The Prime Minister briefed her on the Sri Lankan peace process. She commended the Lankan government for inviting more Indian investors to Sri Lanka and cited the Indian Oil Company as a fine example. On Monday, Sri Lanka and India agreed to speed up negotiations on a new economic partnership pact aimed at boosting free trade between the neighbours during Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's two-day visit. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee discussed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which aims to upgrade a free trade pact signed in December 1998. Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said the lunch meet's "highlight" was the presentation of a report on the CEPA. "The report was presented to the two prime ministers ... and we (both governments) have agreed, we will act on this report before the end of March," he said. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said "trade issues figured prominently in the talks" and added that New Delhi and Colombo hoped to finalise CEPA negotiations by 2004. Two-way trade hit one billion dollars last year with Indian exports amounting to 831 million dollars, up from 604 million dollars in 2001. Sri Lanka's exports to India rose more dramatically to touch 167.7 million dollars last year, up from 70.8 million dollars in 2001. Sinha said Wickremesinghe had also briefed Vajpayee about the latest developments in the Island's peace process. Spokesman Navtej Sarna said Wickremesinghe and Vajpayee had also agreed that fishermen of India and Sri Lanka straying into the other's waters would be treated in a "humane manner." "They also discussed the issue of terrorism and agreed on a concerted opposition to terrorism and that there was no justification for terrorism," Sarna said. |
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