Indian Foreign Secretary to Meet Sri Lankan President

COLOMBO (NNN-Xinhua) -- Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai would visit Sri Lanka on Saturday and meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa for talks, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said on Wednesday.

Indian High Commission spokesperson Birendra Yadav told Xinhua that this would be the first visit to Colombo by Mathai since he took office in August.

While Yadev did not divulge the purpose or the agenda of the visit, it is understood that both sides will discuss progress on reaching a political solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka.

India has been pushing for an immediate solution for the Tamil issue which was the main cause of a 30 year war in Sri Lanka which ended with the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels two years ago.

Recently India also urged Sri Lanka to continue negotiations with a key minority Tamil political party when finalizing the political solution.

The Indian Foreign Secretary is expected to meet members of the Tamil National Alliance during his visit to look at the progress of the talks.

A fresh round of discussions, which were to take place on Monday, between the Tamil National Alliance and the Sri Lankan government, was postponed by the Sri Lankan government.

The Tamil National Alliance said the talks were postponed as the government was focused on local council elections to be held on Saturday. --NNN-XINHUA