The Hindu : India wants peace process to continue in Sri Lanka

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2003

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India wants peace process to continue in Sri Lanka

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI April 22. India hopes that the peace process between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam will continue, despite the suspension of talks by the latter. The Foreign Office spokesman said the peace process was a difficult and complicated one and had progressed well so far. Despite (yesterday's) development, the spokesman was hopeful that the process would continue on track.

In a separate development, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, telephoned his French and Iranian counterparts, Dominique de Villepin and Kamal Kharazzi, today. The central topic of conversation with both Foreign Ministers was Iraq.

These telephone calls are part of a larger process of consultations which Mr. Sinha has initiated on Iraq. It would appear that India wants to keep itself in the loop as far as developments relating to Iraq were concerned. The issues that were discussed in today's telephone conversations included the future set-up of Iraq and a possible role for the United Nations. The need to work closely was underlined keeping the best interests of the Iraqi people at heart, the Foreign Office spokesman said.

According to him, the French Foreign Minister appreciated the "constructive declaration'' coming from the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in Srinagar last week. Mr. Sinha and Mr. de Villepin shared concerns on cross-border terrorism and underlined the need for Pakistan to fulfil its commitment to fight this menace.

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