With a record $1.4 billion defence budget this year, the Sri Lankan Government is looking at an all out offensive against the LTTE. “Every year we spend some percentage of our GDP in fighting terror. It is time to stop a piecemeal approach and look at it in a comprehensive manner,” said Bogollagama, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, during his visit here.

The Foreign Minister said that Sri Lankan forces have destroyed 10 “floating arsenals” belonging to the Sea Tigers and have cleared the Tamil force from the Eastern province in recent days. However, echoing President Mahinda Rajapakse’s recent statement at a leadership summit in Delhi, he added that getting back to the negotiating table is still a possibility.

“The LTTE is getting pushed to the wall and should get a pragmatic realisation that political negotiations are the only way to get out of it,” the Minister said.

With a 20 per cent increase in defence spending this year, Colombo is looking at new military hardware to fight the newly raised aerial wing of the Tigers but not much of it is likely to come from India. “We buy defence equipment from wherever it is available to us. And, we are very transparent about it. We cannot burden India with any other demands. There is already a lot of moral support from New Delhi,” Bogollagama said.

The Minister said that in discussions with Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister, Colombo emphasised on the need to get a political solution to bring peace in Sri Lanka. “Our talks (were focused) on broadening areas of interest, particularly political proposals to solve problems,” he added.

The Foreign Minister also met senior politicians, including L K Advani on the visit. He will head back for Colombo on Tuesday.

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