S Jaishankar meets Tamil parties, welcomes TNA-Colombo talks

Colombo, March 28: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday held talks with a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led by R. Sampanthan, Member of Parliament, during his visit to Sri Lanka. He also met with representatives of the upcountry Tamils including Jeevan and Senthil Thondaman. The TNA delegation briefed EAM of the latest developments, focusing on the March 25 meeting between the Government and the TNA. They conveyed that the issues of release of political prisoners, land utilization, missing persons, 13th Amendment implementation and diaspora investment were discussed in the meeting. Earlier, the Sri Lankan Government’s engagement with TNA also came up during EAM’s call on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The EAM received a more detailed understanding of this subject from Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris later in the evening. On his part, EAM welcomed in all these interactions the positive developments regarding the issues on the Government-TNA agenda. He emphasized that the Government of India was consistently supportive of the realization of the aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka for equality, justice, peace and dignity within the framework of a united Sri Lanka, an official statement said. The contribution of India’s development partnership to economic recovery in the North and East was also recognized in all the meetings. EAM expressed particular satisfaction at the virtual inauguration of the Jaffna Cultural Centre that he did along with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. EAM separately met Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Douglas Devananda. They discussed issues pertaining to fishermen and exchanged views on devolution. “Met the TNA delegation led by Shri R Sampanthan. Discussed realization of the aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka for equality, justice, peace and dignity,” Jaishankar tweeted. The minister also met Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leaders and discussed the socio-economic issues of the Indian origin Tamil (IOT) community in Sri Lanka. “Interacted with TPA delegation of Mano Ganeshan, Thigambaram, V Radhakrishnan, Uday Kumar. Discussed the socio-economic issues of the Indian origin Tamil community. India stands committed to its development partnership with IOTs,” he said in another tweet. On March 25, the long-postponed meeting between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the representatives of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) took place. The meeting started at 10.30 am at the Presidential Secretariat and lasted till 1.30 pm. At the leadership of R. Sampanthan, a senior leader of the TNA, Senathirasa, the leader of the ITAK, and other MPs including MA Sumanthiran, R. Shanakiyan, Charles Nirmalanathan, Shritharan Sivagnanam and Kalaiyarasan were also present at the meeting. According to reports, Rajapaksa agreed to release political prisoners and make efforts to engage with the Tamil diaspora. The government is also, according to Rajapaksa, working on amendments to the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and resolving the concerns of the families of forcibly disappeared persons (UNI)