Sri lanka’s new President Maithripala Sirisena will be on a four-day visit to India from February 15-18. This will be Sirisena’s first official visit outside lanka as the head of State. Apart from diplomacy, Sirisena will also use the opportunity for a religious tour to Tirupati and Bodhgaya during his stay in India.The Ministry of External Affairs while announcing the dates underlined that all bilateral matters including economy, peace and reconciliation in Sri lanka apart from the perennial issues like fishermen will be discussed during the meeting between Sirisena and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi on Wednesday tweeted that he was looking forward to the visit of President Sirisena to India. India and lanka are also expected to talk about the modalities of repatriation of about 90,000 lankan Tamil refugees living in India. The matter was recently discussed at length between Sri lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera during his visit to New Delhi. After his meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Samaraweera said ‘serious talks’ in this regard would begin soon as both countries wanted a long term solution to this. It is learnt that plans are being drawn for a mass repatriation.
The Sirisena Government had announced a resettlement program for the lankan Tamils as part of its 100 day action program. And, according to reports in lankan media, last week the Sri lankan Cabinet reportedly approved the decision to facilitate repatriation. However, India would be interested in seeing that repatriated refugees go back home with something to look forward to. The lankan authorities are learnt to have started working on preparing attractive packages like housing and employment for Tamil refugees to resettle.
MEA officials said India has been hoping that the new government under Sirisena will develop lanka on the foundation of genuine and effective reconciliation creating harmony between all sections there. Sirisena’s victory has also raised hopes in India for a balance in relationship with China as Sri lanka was slowly tilting towards them during his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa’s term.