India urges Sri Lanka of cooperation for humanitarian treatment of fishermen

India on Wednesday requested continued cooperation of the Government of Sri Lanka for humanitarian treatment of Indian fishermen, without resorting to force under any circumstances.

Both India and Sri Lanka welcomed the meeting of the Joint Working Group on Fisheries held in Colombo earlier this month.

The Indian side also informed the Sri Lankan side of the measures taken by India to encourage the Indian fishermen concerned for adopting deep sea fishing.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe reiterated the invitation to the Prime Minister for a visit to Sri Lanka on the coming Vesak Day.

Details in this regard are being discussed and finalized between the two governments.

Wickremesinghe, who is on a working visit to India from 25-29 April 2017, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the today.

The two leaders discussed a range of bilateral issues and matters of mutual interest. The Prime Minister hosted a lunch in honour of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Affairs and Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called on the visiting dignitary today.

The discussions of the Indian leadership with the visiting dignitary provided both sides an opportunity to review the progress in implementation of the decisions taken during various high level exchanges in the past two years or so, including the visit of the Prime Minister to Sri Lanka in March 2015 and the visits of the President and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to India since February 2015.

The two sides expressed their satisfaction at the progress in implementation of the outcomes of these exchanges, which further strengthened the historically close and friendly relations between the two countries.

The Indian side reiterated India's commitment to promoting prosperity in the neighbourhood and affirmed the continued support of India for realizing the vision of the Sri Lankan leadership for a stable, peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka.

The leaders welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for 'Cooperation in Economic Projects', which outlines the agenda for bilateral economic cooperation in the foreseeable future. Both sides expressed their commitment to ensuring that this mutually beneficial agenda is expeditiously implemented.

They also expressed the hope for early conclusion of the ongoing negotiations on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement.

Pointing out that India had welcomed Sri Lanka co-sponsoring the Resolution "Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka" at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last month, the Indian leadership expressed the earnest hope that recommendations on the reconciliation would be completed within the stipulated timeframe of two years.