Nay Pyi Taw: External Affairs
Minister S M Krishna met his Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha
Bogollagama and is understood to have enquired about the
progress in the resettlement of internally displaced persons
(IDPs) in northern parts of the country.
Krishna had a long chat with Bogollagama on the
sidelines of a dinner hosted by Myanmar Foreign Minister U
Nyan Win in the honour of participants of the 12th ministerial
meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) here last night.
Krishna is understood to have enquired about the
details about the IDPs who have left the settlement camps, the
sources said.
The issue of Indian fishermen straying into Lankan
waters was also discussed with Bogollagama. The Lankan
minister is understood to have assured Krishna that the Navy
has been directed to handover such fishermen to Indian
authorities directly, they said.
Krishna also sought to know the progress on a
Memorandum of Understanding to be inked for cooperation
between the navies of the two countries, the sources said.
The meeting in Myanmar comes hours after a
three-member Lankan delegation comprising Basil Rajapaksa,
senior adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Lalith
Weeratunga, secretary to the president, and Defence Secretary
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa held a series of meetings with the Indian
leadership in Delhi.
They had also called on Krishna yesterday morning.
The Lankan delegation had told the Indian side that
more than 158,000 IDPs have since left the camps and around
115,000 still remained there.
They indicated their resolve to resettle the IDPs
before end-January 2010.
The Sri Lankan government had set a 180-day deadline
for resettling IDPs after the Lankan forces defeated the LTTE
in May, bringing to an end decades-long insurgency in the
island nation.
Last night, Krishna also met Nepalese Deputy Prime
Minister Sujatha Koirala and Myanmar counterpart U Nyan Win.
PTI
