Sri Lanka, India to conduct coordinated marine patrol

The Sri Lankan government said Monday that it will conduct coordinated patrol with India over the maritime boundary between the two countries in the Palk Straits.

The Media Center for National Security said in a statement that the Indian government was agreeable to conduct the coordinated patrol to prevent attacks on fisherman by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the area and the transporting of material supplies to the LTTE.

"Modalities for this deployment will be worked out between the two sides," said the statement.

The agreement was reached between Indian Defense Minister A. K. Anthony and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on the sidelines of the 6th Annual IISS Asian Security Summit taking place in Singapore.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse proposed such a mechanism in March in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa took up the matter again during his visit to New Delhi last week.

President Rajapakse said last week in an interview that no country but India can involve in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict.

Sri Lanka has been seeking Indian support to fight LTTE growing capabilities. But India insists that it would only provide defensive weapons, like radars to Sri Lanka but no offensive weapons.

Claiming discrimination at the hands of the majority ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government, the LTTE has been fighting for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's 12.5 percent Tamil minority since the 1970s with nearly 70,000 people being killed.

Source: Xinhua