Rajapaksa to meet Prez, PM on Thursday

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be in New Delhi on Thursday on a brief visit during which he will hold talks with President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Manmohan Singh on the ethnic Tamil question and other issues of bilateral interest.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be in New Delhi on Thursday on a brief visit during which he will hold talks with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the ethnic Tamil question and other issues of bilateral interest.

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In the first high-level interaction after India voted against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, Rajapaksa will meet Mukherjee and hold talks with Singh over dinner on Thursday during which all issues of bilateral interest would be discussed.

The Sri Lankan President, who is visiting India primarily to lay foundation stone a Buddhist Centre of Learning in Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, will make a brief stop over in Delhi, the external affairs ministry said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

During the talks with Singh, Rajapaksa is expected to brief him on the steps being taken to follow-up the military victory with a political solution to resolve the decades-old Tamil question.

Singh is expected to get an update on the developmental programmees being implemented by India in the war-torn northern Sri Lanka.

After the brief stop over, Rajapaksa will fly to Madhya Pradesh to participate in the foundation laying ceremony of the Buddhist Centre.

The Sri Lankan President's visit has generated political heat in Tamil Nadu where almost all political parties are opposed to his India visit.

MDMK chief, a strong votary of Sri Lankan Tamils issue, has announced holding of a rally against Rajapaksa's visit in Madhya Pradesh on Friday.