Rajapaksa-Modi meeting on UNGA session sidelines likely
September 1, 2014 08:06 am
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa are likely to
meet on the sidelines of the 69th UN General Assembly session in New York in
the third week of September, Lankan officials told Express.
“Whether
Modi will meet a particular Head of Government or not will depend on the number
of requests made and the availability of time. The Indian PM is expected to be
in New York for three days when he will be having bilateral meetings with
select Heads of Government among other engagements, apart from addressing the
Assembly,” an official said.
While
the Lankan President will address the General Assembly on September 25, the
Indian PM will do so on September 27.
Rajapaksa
is believed to be keen on meeting Modi following the latter’s much publicized
session with the Tamil National Alliance at which the Indian PM had expressed
his commitment to the Tamil cause and to the 13th Amendment as the basis for
power devolution to the Tamil-speaking provinces.
He
had also backed the TNA’s demand that bilateral talks between the Lankan
government and the TNA should be resumed, irrespective of the fate of the
Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC).
The
Rajapaksa government is uneasy with the TNA’s tendency to seek Indian and other
foreign help instead of joining the PSC. In this context, President Rajapaksa
will certainly be eager to know Modi’s mind first hand.
Modi
himself is believed to be eager to convey to Rajapaksa his take on the
situation in Sri Lanka after his interaction with the TNA. That the Lankan
Tamil issue has become important for the BJP is evident in the meeting the TNA
had with the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit at Chennai on their way back to Lanka from
New Delhi, NIE reports.
