India to step up its naval surveilance across common waters between India and Sri Lanka

By Walter Jayawardhana

Sri Lanka government’s media center for national security quoting the country’s Foreign minister said India has agreed to step up its naval surveillance in the common waters between the two countries.

Sri lanka’s foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama soon after he accepted the new ministry in President Rajapaksa’s reshuffled cabined met in his first official foreign trip to new Delhi Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukerjee.

The media center for national security in its website said, “India has agreed to step up its naval surveillance of common waters with Sri Lanka to check activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), newly appointed Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said”

Before the meeting many sensational stories were headlined in the Indian press as to how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) has started to smuggle from the very porous South Indian coast large quantities of explosives and other material like steel ball bearings to Sri Lanka in preparation for a long drawn out war in the country.

One report said LTTE agents on one occasion purchased six metric tons of steel balls in Mumbai to be used in Improvised Explosive Devices the terrorist group extensively manufactures for attacks against civilians and military personnel.

The website quoting Indian agency reports said, ”Bogollagama, who held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday, said his government was ready to give the LTTE a stake in the governmental processes if it shunned violence, but asserted that terrorism by the rebel group will be met with force.”

"There is need for greater supervision and surveillance of the waters around Sri Lanka. India is our immediate neighbor and shares waters with us. It is imperative that we have cooperation on the naval front," said Bogollagama, who undertook a day-long visit here within 72 hours of becoming foreign minister. "That (cooperation in naval surveillance) is getting further enhanced," he told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the situation in the island nation.

Highlighting the fact that he had chosen India as the first country he visited after getting the new assignment, he said it reflected the importance accorded to this country by his government. He said he had come here to convey a message of "clarity" regarding Sri Lanka's standpoint and looked forward to greater cooperation between the two countries in the months to come.

Bogollagama said Sri Lanka looked forward to enhanced cooperation with India in various fields, including trade, commerce, railways and power, while underlining the need for a time-bound and "business-like" approach to their partnership.

He said he had discussed the issue of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Singh and talks on it were expected to be launched by the middle of this year. The NTPC has been hauled in to set up a coal-based power plant in Sri Lanka and cooperation in the field of railways was also being looked upon, he said.

Turning to Sunday's reshuffle, he said that in view of the development "LTTE will get signals to be part of the (peace) process rather than be out of it." The Sri Lankan minister also rejected allegations of human rights violations, saying there was a lot of misrepresentation of facts