Reply To:
Name - Reply Comment
Last Updated : 2024-05-04 16:32:00
Colombo, March 30 (Daily Mirror)- India remains unresponsive to the request by Sri Lanka to allow an innocent passage through the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for its fishermen to enter the Arabian Sea, a top source said.
Sri Lanka made this request when President Ranil Wickremesinghe visited India last year. The Indian route will help Lankan fishermen cut down the total distance by 400 nautical miles. Currently, they have to take a longer route via Negombo, Dikovita, Beruwala and Matara around the Maldives.
Currently, Sri Lankan fishermen get detained by the Indian Coast Guard when they unlawfully enter Indian waters on their way to the Arabian Sea for fishing activities.
The President embarked on a two-day visit to India in July last year, his first since taking office last year after a tumultuous period that saw the island nation’s economy tank, and protests erupt on its streets leading to ouster of former leaders.
The two countries currently work on a number of connectivity projects including land connect and power grid connectivity. During the economic crisis, India extended financial assistance amounting to US $ 4 billion.
However, the fisheries issue has become an irritant to the bilateral ties. Fishermen from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu indulge in poaching in Sri Lankan waters in the Palk Bay constitutes exceptionally rich fishing grounds for the fishers of India and Sri Lanka. The dispute between Indian and Sri Lankan fishers has emerged in exploiting fisheries resources, posing serious threats to the livelihoods of thousands of fishery dependents in the two countries. According to the Fisheries Ministry, hundreds of trawl boats from Tamil Nadu enter the Sri Lankan waters and carry out fishing activities.
The two countries have remained engaged with each other to resolve the dispute, at least by encouraging fishermen to venture out to international waters, but there is no solution in sight.
Never going to be resolution for Innocent Passage, give up on it, and get rid of Indian poaches Sunday, 31 March 2024 10:16 AM
As long as Sri Lanka is against the poaching of fish in our waters, which the local fisherman are totally against there will be no relief of 'Innocent Passage' to Arabian sea. The trawlers of the Indians do great damage to the environment under sea, and their activity has long term consequence to fisherman here. To imagine there can be a resolution is total fantasy. Ranil even mentiioning wanting 'Innocent Passage' shows he is a moron. The losses caused by Indians poaching here is far greater than any minuscule gain of saving of fuel of not having to travel extra 400 kilometers.
Jim Sunday, 31 March 2024 10:30 PM
Remember all this
Add comment
Comments will be edited (grammar, spelling and slang) and authorized at the discretion of Daily Mirror online. The website also has the right not to publish selected comments.
Reply To:
Name - Reply Comment
US authorities are currently reviewing the manifest of every cargo aboard MV
On March 26, a couple arriving from Thailand was arrested with 88 live animal
According to villagers from Naula-Moragolla out of 105 families 80 can afford
Is the situation in Sri Lanka so grim that locals harbour hope that they coul
03 May 2024