A day after India conveyed to Sri Lanka its deep concern over the spiralling violence there, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Friday met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and discussed the situation in the strife torn country.
Menon, who returned to Chennai from Colombo on Friday morning after a day's visit to discuss the current situation there, briefed Karunanidhi on his talks with Sri Lankan leaders. Narayanan too flew down from Delhi to participate in the meeting.
Emerging from a 45-minute meeting, Narayanan and Menon told reporters that their meeeting with Karunanidhi was part of normal process of consultations between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Karunanidhi.
"It is part of regular dialogue between the two. We will continue this as this is an ongoing process. We will carry this forward," they said.
Earlier, on his arrival from Colombo, Menon told reporters at Chennai airport that he had 'fruitful talks' with the Sri Lankan leaders on the situation in the island nation. Menon, who had a one-to-one meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse at his Temple Trees residence, also met a cross-section of political leaders.
Reiterating India's known stand that any solution to the ethnic strife in the island country should be within a unified Sri Lanka, Menon said: "India had always maintained that a solution has to be found by meeting aspirations of all ethnic groups within the framework of a united Sri Lanka. That is our goal and how to go about it is what we are consulting among ourselves."
On extending humanitarian assistance to Tamils in Sri Lanka, Narayanan said: "Matter needs to be discussed. As and when India decides to send assistance, we will decide in what form it will go"
Menon's visit followed serious concern expressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over renewed fighting between the military and LTTE, which has left thousands dead since last December, in a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu had vociferously raised the issue and Karunanidhi had said the time was ripe for the Centre to 'rethink and find an answer' to the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka.
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