Foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai will visit Sri Lanka from October 8 to October 10. During the visit, besides coveying India?s pledge to help rebuild Sri Lanka?s war-ravaged region and rehabilitate those displaced by a quarter century of armed conflict, Mathai is likely to push Colombo to reach a political solution that provides a “just and fair deal to Tamils”.
He is also expected to call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa and meet Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe and representatives of the Tamil National Alliance to hear their views on mobilising political consensus to resolve ethnic issues.
India has consistently conveyed to Colombo the need to take concrete steps for ?genuine national reconciliation?, acceptable to all the communities, including the Tamils. Mathai will also hold wide-ranging talks on bilateral relations and regional and global issues with his Sri Lankan counterpart Karunatillake Amunugama. After the Tamil Tigers were crushed in May 2009, India launched humanitarian operations for the displaced Tamils and pledged over $1 billion to rebuild infrastructure.