By NNN-PTI,
Colombo : Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will arrive here on a visit to Sri Lanka on Thursday to meet island nation’s top leadership, even as the government forces have intensified operations against LTTE to take the last Tamil Tigers’ bastion of Mullaittivu.
Menon will hold deliberations with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and other senior officials during his two day visit.
He is also expected to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Menon’s visit comes at a time when the Sri Lankan army has captured key areas from LTTE including Tamil Tigers de facto political capital.
India has maintained that military solution to the protracted ethnic conflict will not resolve the nation’s decade old ethnic problem and Colombo would have to look for a political solution.
According to the Indian High Commission spokesman, Menon will have discussions on issues of mutual interest between the two countries during his visit.
“There are several aspects to the Sri Lankan problem. No one of them is sufficient to solve the problem,” Menon had told reporters earlier this month in New Delhi when asked to comment on the Lankan military offensive in the island nation.
“There is no military solution to the problem, no matter how the military situation might fluctuate. One side may be up or down,” he had said.
India had sent 1,700 tonnes of essential supplies in the form of 80,000 assortment packets to be distributed to the displaced Tamils in the north in November.
This, to an extent, doused the fire in Tamil Nadu where all political parties, except AIADMK, are demanding a cessation of hostilities in the Wanni.