The postponed second round of talks fishermen level talks between the Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen are to be held in Colombo on May 12 a senior government official has said.
Sri Lanka’s Director General of Fisheries, Nimal Hettiarachchi has told the media on Friday that the long stalled talks between the representatives of the fishermen of India and Sri Lanka on the controversial issue of fishing in the Palk Strait and Palk Bay, will be held in Colombo on May 12.
According to the official, 26 Indian fishermen and 20 Sri Lankan fishermen will participate in the one-day talks. Officials from the two countries will be present as observers.
Official-level talks on technical, scientific and legal aspects of fishing in the disputed region will be held later and the dates will be fixed for the discussions after the fishermen level talks, according to Hettiarachchi.
After the successful talks at the first round on January 27 in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu State government fixed March 25th date for the second round of talks, which were originally scheduled to be held on March 13th in Colombo.
However, the talks got postponed since Sri Lanka did not release all the Indian fishermen and their boats detained in Sri Lanka before the talks as the Tamil Nadu government demanded.
2000, 2014 by LankaPage.com (LLC)