Indian PM to visit Sri Lanka?

NEW DELHI: Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said yesterday that Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will visit Sri Lanka soon.


Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

Responding to a question by the Daily News during a media briefing here in connection with the 14th SAARC summit as to why an Indian Prime Minister had not undertaken a state visit to Sri Lanka since 1987 (twenty years) the Foreign Secretary Menon, one time India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka said “Certainly we are looking at it. It will happen soon”.

Last Thursday, the Daily News also asked Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee why an Indian Prime Minister had not made a State visit to Sri Lanka for nearly twenty years, Foreign Minister Mukherjee responded” I have noted it. I will take it up with the Prime Minister”.

Late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was the last Indian Prime Minister to make a State visit to Sri Lanka, in July 1987 to sign the Indo-Lanka Accord.