Combating terrorism:

Thailand assures support

Thailand will not allow anybody to use the Thai territory to destabilise Sri Lanka, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Wednesday.

Appreciating Sri Lanka’s concern about the possibility of terrorism spilling over to the region, the Thai PM said that it was “in all our interest” to end terrorism.

Foreign Minister Bogollagama on an official visit to Thailand also met Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwon.

A press release issued by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs said: “Bogollagama pointed out the steps being taken to expand political pluralism especially in the north which had been long denied and said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was meeting with Tamil political parties towards achieving this end.

He said that the Government had a public mandate to end terrorism in the country.

But while internally the government might end terrorism he sought support from the region and outside it because of the LTTE could mushroom elsewhere and there is a need to guard against it in the long term.

Minister Bogollagama told the Thai Prime Minister that this was a good time to discuss the expansion of trade relations between the two countries. He said there were many areas where they could cooperate.

Prime Minister Vejjajiva agreed that a lot more could be done to enhance trade between them and pointed out that they should identify areas for investment.

He said that tourism could be expanded especially because of the strong Buddhist ties that link the two countries.

Minister Bogollagama pointed out that there is a Sri Lanka-Thai Joint Commission which should be reactivated and said Sri Lanka would like to host the next meeting.

In his meeting with Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya too, the Sri Lankan minister underscored the need to revive the Joint Commission so that it could play a decisive role in enhancing bilateral relations.

During the talks Thai Foreign Minister Piromya said he was heartened by Sri Lanka’s success in fighting terrorism so far and said that there was already cooperation between them in the field of intelligence gathering and exchange.

The Thai Prime Minister showed considerable interest in Sri Lanka’s idea of setting up an International Buddhist Centre where different countries that have Buddhist links and followers would create their own representative structures of temples, religious symbols, libraries or places of learning which would reflect their respective values.

The Prime Minister of Thailand said he would certainly ask the relevant Thai department to look into it.

Minister Bogollagama said that in the field of culture there are wider areas to be explored. He also asked for Thailand’s support to become a sectoral partner of Asean as a prelude to becoming a dialogue partner.