Sri Lanka says Katchatheevu issue settled 50 years ago
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Sri Lankan foreign minister Ali Sabry | Photo: Reuters
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said the Katchatheevu dispute was resolved fifty years ago, hence there's no need to revisit it, as The Times of India reported on Wednesday.
Sabry's remarks are Sri Lanka's first formal response with regard to the recent political dispute in India about New Delhi's abandonment of its claims to the island in 1974.
“There is no controversy,” the newspaper quoted Sabry as saying in response to a reporters’ questions. “They [India] are having an internal political debate about who is responsible. Other than that, no one is talking about claiming Katchatheevu.”
Located in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, Katchatheevu is a small, deserted island. Since at least 1921, both India and Sri Lanka have claimed the island, Scroll.in reported.
The two nations agreed to sign a document defining their maritime border in 1974. The island of Katchatheevu is essentially located in Sri Lankan territorial seas because the boundary is reported to run one mile off the western shore of the island.
The Congress was attacked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, claiming "new facts" that demonstrated the party had "callously" surrendered the island to Sri Lanka. He was referring to an article published in The Times of India that included documents from a response to Right to Information that implied the then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi, had given Katchatheevu to the island nation.
The papers were acquired by K Annamalai, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu, via a Right to Information request, the newspaper reported.
One day later, the prime minister claimed that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's "double standards" had been "unmasked" by "new details" regarding the case.
He referenced a different article from The Times of India based on the documents, which stated that despite the widespread condemnation of the deal by his party, the late M Karunanidhi, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, had consented to give away Katchatheevu.
The authenticity of the documents has not been verified independently.