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Ranil-Modi talks on Sept. 15; poaching, CEPA on agenda
View(s):Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will make his first official trip overseas when he visits India from September 14-16.
Official talks with his counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take place on September 15 in New Delhi. Mr. Modi will host a lunch in honour of the visiting premier on the same day.
Premier Wickremesinghe will also hold talks with India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and pay a courtesy call on President Pranab Mukherjee. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera who will leave for Geneva to attend the UN Human Rights Council sessions on September 12 will join the Prime Minister in New Delhi for the bi-lateral talks.
India is expected to take up the issue of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), talks on which broke down due to opposition by sections of the Sri Lankan business community during the previous regime. The proposed land bridge between India and Sri Lanka linking Talaimannar with Rameshwaran is also likely to be one of the key issues to be taken up by the Indian side during official talks. The future of the Chinese funded Colombo Port City project, currently stalled on environmental grounds is expected to be another issue to be raised by India.
The two countries are also likely to discuss the latest developments on the Sri Lanka resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Meanwhile Fisheries Ministry Secretary N.D. Hettiaarachchi told the Sunday Times that one of the main issues to be taken up during the Wickremesinghe-Modi talks would be the poaching crisis which had soured relations for the past few years.
“We have submitted a report to the Foreign Ministry detailing the issues faced by the local fishermen due to large scale poaching by Indian fisher folk in the Palk Strait and the matter is to be raised during Premier Wickremesinghe’s talks in India,” he said.
He said the large scale poaching by Indian fishermen virtually on a regular basis was gradually destroying the marine habitat on both sides of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and therefore a sustainable solution would have to be found soon.
The secretary said Indian poachers were using illegal methods such as bottom trawling and illegal nets. “For each kilogram of catch some 22 kilograms of marine habitat is destroyed by the poachers,” he charged.Over the past year, there had been three rounds of talks between the two countries, involving officials and fisher folk representatives, but the situation had worsened with the Indian poaching going up, he said.
In the latest detection, 19 Indian poachers were arrested along with their fishing vessels in the northern seas prompting a strike by mechanised boat owners in Tamil Nadu.The Indian boat owners have alleged that the Sri Lankan navy had carried out unprovoked attacks on their fisher folk, destroying their nets and other equipment.
The Navy denied such attacks and an official said that the Indians were arrested after they had crossed the border to fish in Sri Lankan waters