Thursday, Feb 10, 2005
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By Amit Baruah
NEW DELHI, FEB. 9. It has been almost 18 years since an Indian Prime Minister paid a bilateral visit to Sri Lanka and nearly seven years since an Indian head of Government travelled to Colombo to attend a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit. All that is now going to change. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is set to visit Sri Lanka (and Mauritius) by March end, sources in the Prime Minister's Office told this correspondent today. In July 1987, then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, went to Colombo to sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with President J.R. Jayewardene, and in July 1998, the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, attended the Colombo SAARC summit.
Happy situation
As Dr. Singh's visit to Colombo is mapped out, India is in a happy situation where Sri Lankans across the political spectrum are united in the feeling that having good relations with New Delhi is a good thing. "Since 1998, we have been inviting the Prime Minister of India to visit Sri Lanka. We would love to have him in our country," the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Mangala Moonesinghe, said today. And, he stressed that an invitation was reiterated to the Indian leadership time and again. At the bilateral level, I.K. Gujral travelled to Sri Lanka in January 1997 as the External Affairs Minister. Two of his successors, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha, also paid visits to Sri Lanka.
No `return' visits
Though there have been no "return" visits from India, the Sri Lankan leadership, both at the level of President and Prime Minister, have had regular high-level meetings through periodic visits to New Delhi. According to Mr. Moonesinghe, the Sri Lanka-India bilateral relationship is excellent. "The entire national constituency of Sri Lanka is pro-India," the High Commissioner stressed, pointing out that even the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna had changed its views about India. From India's point of view, the Sri Lankan leadership has kept New Delhi informed about the state of the peace process with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the involvement of Norway as the facilitator.
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