SLFP, UNP hold second round of talks on common agenda

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 12:01 GMT]
The second round of talks between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) were held Tuesday in the parliamentary complex. It began around 9:30 a.m. The objective of the talks is to formulate a common agenda giving top priority to reach a consensus to resolve ethnic conflict.

The SLFP delegation was led by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and comprising Ministers Maithiripala Sirisena, and John Seneviratne. The UNP delegation was by its Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya. Other members of the UNP delegation were Milinda Morogoda, Professor G.L.Peiris, Rukman Senanayake, and John Amaratunge, and Malik Samarawickrema.

The first round of talks between these two parties held last week ended in an optimistic note, according to joint communiqué issued by the leaderships of the SLFP and UNP at the conclusion. A sub-joint committee comprising members of these two parties was appointed at the conclusion of the first round of talks to submit its recommendations on the proposals forwarded during the inaugural event of talks.

The third round of talks is scheduled to be held on October 3rd.

The talks between the fifty five years old SLFP and sixty years old UNP commenced following the invitation sent by President Mahinda Rajapakse to the latter to join his government and the UNP readily accepted it without condition.