NEW DELHI: As Sri Lanka hopes for India to extend yet another Line of Credit of $500 million to enable the island nation to buy fuel for the next four months, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday chaired a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee on external affairs on Saturday and said there was “unanimous support” on the need to stand with the neighbouring country in its hour of crisis.
“Chaired a Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting on the situation in Sri Lanka. A good discussion was held in a positive atmosphere on various issues and India’s role,” Jaishankar tweeted and also posted pictures with MPs who attended the meeting. “Unanimous support on the need to stand with our neighbour in this difficult time.”
Ministers of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, Meenakshi Lekhi and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh also attended the meeting. Opposition leaders who took part in the meeting included Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, BJD’s Sujeet Kumar and DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, among others. From the BJP, Rajdeep Roy and GVL Narasimha Rao attended the meeting.
According to sources, the refugee issue was also discussed. The parliamentary committee was informed that the government was keeping a close watch on the situation and that only a few refugees had arrived since the crisis unfolded in Sri Laka. At the meeting, it was also stressed that India gives financial credit to other nations on terms that don’t put these countries in trouble in the future.