India has pledged to take prompt action in settling Indian fishermen’s issue of deep sea fishing which has aggravated to poaching in Sri Lanka territorial waters badly hitting the country's fisher folk livelihood.
Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay has given this pledge when he met Minister of Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka Dinesh Gunawardena and the Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devanada at the Ministry of Foreign Relations today’, Indian High Commission in Colombo announced,
He stressed the need to continue to deal with the matters related to fishermen and their boats in a humanitarian manner, in accordance with the existing understandings.
The High Commissioner highlighted concrete steps taken by both the Government India and the State Government of Tamil Nadu in addressing all dimensions of the issue and specifically underlined Government of India’s ongoing measures to support and encourage Indian fishermen to practise deep sea fishing.
He expressed the hope that the next meeting of the bilateral mechanism on matters pertaining to fishermen could soon be arranged online.
On the proposal for joint management for Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar by Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda, the High Commissioner shared that the forward looking elements in the proposal needed to be examined in greater detail
He thanked the Government of Sri Lanka for organising the 4th NSA level Trilateral Meeting on Maritime Security held in Colombo on 28 November 2020.
The two countries have agreed at the meeting that enhanced cooperation among various countries, particularly Sri Lanka and India, is crucial for addressing challenges like terrorism, radicalisation, organised crime, drug trafficking, etc. in our region.
The High Commissioner expressed the confidence that India-Sri Lanka relations will reach new heights in the coming year.
(LIN)