NEW DELHI, India; Sept. Renter: India offered Sri Lanka 35 million dollars on Monday in grants and soft loans for postwar reconstruction in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Finance Minister Narain Dutt Tiwari announced a grant of 250 million rupees (19:2 million dollars) at the first meeting of an Indo Sri Lanka joint economic commission in more than 11 years, Tiwari also offered Colombo soft loans worth 200 million rupees (15.4 million dollars) at the meeting attended by Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ronnie De Mel, ‘The meeting follows a pact signed by the two countries in Colombo on July 29 that has ended four years of fighting in Sri Lanka between government troops and Tamil separatists who were based in India.
“The meeting heralds the beginning of a phase in Indo-Sri Lankan cooperation and symbolizes our resolve to work together and cooperate with each other”, Tiwari said.
India is also making arrangements to open direct air links between Colombo and New Delhi and between Southern India and Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna Peninsula.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 11, 1987
