Speaking at a press conference on Friday, at the 12th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation, India's new External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said that India "had no indication whatsoever that there is an issue of dilution or a reversal of the 13th Amendment."
Khurshid said:
"If anything, we have understood that there is a demand from one side for going beyond the Thirteenth Amendment and that the Thirteenth Amendment would not be adequate. This is my understanding of the distance between the two sides on moving forward. We have no indication whatsoever that there is an issue of dilution or a reversal of the 13th Amendment."
"The bottom line that we know is that the 13th Amendment stands, and the 13th Amendment is reaffirmed, but that there is now an expectation that has been placed that there is need to go beyond the 13th Amendment."
"How soon that is possible, if at all it is possible, what will be the procedure and the process that will be undertaken to examine this further, what will be its impact on the deadlines and dates that Sri Lanka has set for itself for elections in the Northern Province, which is sometime next year, this is the matter that we will have to watch and wait for,"
"It of course has an implication for us, but it is an internal matter for that country."
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