Colombo:

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry affirmed his country’s commitment to safeguarding India’s national security interests on Monday, stating that Colombo, as a responsible neighbour, will not allow anyone to harm India’s security.

The Minister also addressed India’s concerns regarding the visits of Chinese research vessels to the island nation, saying that they would like to work with other countries in a transparent manner but not at the cost of others.

“We have very clearly stated that we would like to work with all countries, but any reasonable concerns regarding Indian security will be taken into note, and we will not allow anyone to harm that. Subject to that, of course, in a very transparent manner, we would like to work with all countries,” the Minister said in an interview with ANI.

“I just got to know that recently China has become India’s biggest trading partner. So similarly, like you work with that. We would also like to work with everyone, but that should not come at anyone else, third parties cost. So therefore, let me reiterate, as a responsible neighbour and a civilizational partner we will not undertake anything that would harm the legitimate security concerns of India,” he added.

When asked about the ongoing elections in India, the Minister said that the exercise is a celebration of democracy and asserted that Sri Lanka would work with India irrespective of its election outcome.

“It’s a celebration of democracy, the largest democracy in the world. Indian people are educated. Indian people will know what is good for them. I think when it comes to elections, it is domestic matter. It is the public who must decide and others only should watch. We see this celebration is taking place of a democracy. We want a peaceful conclusion of this and we will work with any outcome with the indian public decide,” he said.

Last year, India had expressed its security concerns over the docking of the vessel at the Sri Lankan port as it was shown as a research vessel with the capability of mapping the ocean bed, which is critical to anti-submarine operations of the Chinese Navy. The Chinese research ship had docked at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while commenting on Chinese spy vessel Yuan Wang-5 which had docked in Sri Lanka, said that any developments that have a bearing on India’s security are “obviously of an interest to us”.

“What happens in our neighbourhood, any developments which have a bearing on our security, obviously are of an interest to us,” Jaishankar said at a joint press conference after the 9th India-Thailand Joint Commission Meeting.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A view of Katchatheevu in Sri Lanka.
| Photo Credit: L. BALACHANDAR

The statements coming out of India on “reclaiming” Katchatheevu island from Sri Lanka have “no ground”, the Sri Lankan Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda has said.

The senior Sri Lankan Tamil politician’s comments came days after the Narendra Modi government targeted the Congress Party and its ally the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu accusing them of overlooking national interests in the ceding of Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in 1974.

The BJP has also been targeting the two parties for not ensuring the rights of the fishermen wanting to fish in waters around the Katchatheevu island.

“It is the election time in India, it is not unusual to hear such noises of claims and counterclaims about Katchatheevu,” Mr. Devananda told reporters in Jaffna on Thursday.

“I think India is acting on its interests to secure this place to ensure Sri Lankan fishermen would not have any access to that area and that Sri Lanka should not claim any rights in that resourceful area”, Devananda said.

The statements on “reclaiming” Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka’s hold has “no ground,” Mr. Devananda has said.

The Sri Lankan Minister said according to the 1974 agreement fishermen from both sides could do fishing in the territorial waters of both countries. But it was later reviewed and amended in 1976.

Accordingly, fishermen from both countries were banned from fishing in neighbouring waters.

Mr. Devananda stressed, “There claims to be a place called West Bank which is located below Kanyakumari — it is a much bigger area with extensive sea resources — it is 80 times bigger than Katchatheevu, India secured it at the 1976 review agreement.”

Mr. Devananda as the Fisheries Minister has faced pressure from the local fishermen in recent months.

The local fishermen have led widespread protests to stop illegal fishing by their Indian counterparts in the Sri Lankan waters. They say the bottom trawling by the Indians is harmful to Sri Lankan fishing community interests.

So far this year, at least 178 Indian fishermen and 23 trawlers have been arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy.

Mr. Devananda, an ex-Tamil militant who now leads the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, was named a proclaimed offender by a court in Chennai in 1994.

On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) steered clear of the row surrounding Katchatheevu island.

To a volley of questions on the Katchatheevu issue, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal referred to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s recent comments on the matter.

“I would like to tell you that on the issues that have been raised, the External Affairs Minister has spoken to the press here in Delhi and also in Gujarat clarifying all the issues,” he said.

“I would refer that you please look at his press engagements. You will get your answers there,” Mr. Jaiswal said in New Delhi.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry.
| Photo Credit: AP

Sri Lanka sees no reason for re-opening talks on Katchatheevu that India gave up 50 years ago, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has said, in the first official reaction yet to the recent remarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the island.

“This is a problem discussed and resolved 50 years ago and there is no necessity to have further discussions on this,” he told a local news television channel on April 3.

Earlier, Colombo-based official sources told The Hindu that the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration refrained from commenting on the development, as it was a clash between two political parties in the run-up to elections. “The comments are about who was responsible for giving up the island to Sri Lanka, not about whose territory it is part of now. So, there is nothing for Sri Lanka to comment on, really,” an official said, requesting anonymity owing to the “sensitivity” of the issue.  

Meanwhile some in Sri Lanka, including mainstream media and former diplomats, have slammed the remarks of Mr. Modi and Mr. Jaishankar, terming them a “provocation”.  

Further, fishermen’s groups in northern Sri Lanka accused the Indian leaders’ of turning the spotlight away from the long-enduring conflict among fishermen of both countries. For several years now, they have voiced concern over the marine resources in the Palk Strait, seen to be depleting owing to overfishing by bottom trawlers used by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters.

Even before the signing of the two agreements in 1974 and 1976 that sealed the territorial question of Katchatheevu, Sri Lanka’s position on the tiny island in the Palk Strait was unambiguous, according to Prof. V. Suryanarayan, Founding Director and Senior Professor (retired), Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras.

In an in-depth two-part analysis of the history of the Katchatheevu dispute, published in Frontline magazine in 1992, he wrote about “New Delhi’s ambivalence”, contrasting it with successive Colombo governments’ “consistent stand” on the matter. According to Prof. Suryanarayan, a Sri Lanka expert, Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake told the House of Representatives that Ceylon’s position had always been that it had exercised effective control over the island. “Our claim is well-founded on historical facts,” the PM had said.