The Indo- Lanka Joint Working Group on Fishing will meet in New Delhi on March 28 to address various issues relating to fishing by the two sides in the narrow Palk Straits and the Gulf of Mannar. The Hindu reported that the senior officials of the External Affairs Ministries of India and Sri Lanka, representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of Defence, the Attorney Generals Department, Immigration, and Armed Forces will take part in the meeting.
The Joint Working Group is to address the proposed Memorandum of Understanding on development and cooperation in the field of fisheries. The joint meeting will take place after a lapse of over five years.
Both sides have decided to hold the next meeting of the Joint Working Group on Fishing at an early date during the discussions between Indias Foreign Secretary Mrs. Nirupama Rao and the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January. Mrs. Rao visited the island in late January to discuss the issue of fishermen from both sides straying into each others waters and recent killings of two Indian fishermen allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy.
A joint statement issued following the Foreign Secretarys visit said the two sides decided to enhance and promote contacts between the fishermens associations on both sides, since such contacts have proved to be mutually beneficial. The Sri Lankan government vehemently denied that its navy was involved in the fishermens killings. With more Sri Lankan fishermen from the North and East returning to fishing following the end of the war, the presence of Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters has raised opportunity for more confrontations between the two groups.