Lanka sees no need for talks with India on island it ceded

Sri Lanka does not see any need to re-open talks on a contentious island ceded to it by New Delhi 50 years ago, the foreign minister has said, after the low-key territorial squabble turned into a hot-button election issue in India. The party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to win general elections that start on April 19, has flagged the issue of Indian fishermen discontented after a 1976 pact between the neighbours barred them from the waters around the island. "This is a problem discussed and resolved 50 years ago and there is no necessity to have further discussions on this," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told the domestic Hiru television channel on Wednesday. "I don't think it will come up," he said, adding that no one had yet raised the question of a change in the status of the island.