`India should balance interests of Tamils, its security`

India should strike a "balance" between its efforts to secure rights of Tamils and protect its own security interests in Sri Lanka by preventing Pakistan and China from getting a "foothold" in Colombo, a senior Tamil politician from the island nation said here.

Pakistan and China wooed Mahinda Rajapakse government with defence cooperation offers to fight LTTE, requiring India to strike a balance, Tharmalingam Sitharthan, heading the Peoples Liberation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), said today.

"If India feels Pakistan and China should be kept out of Sri Lanka, New Delhi should have a degree of defence cooperation to ensure island's own security," he said.

Sitharthan, a former militant-turned-politician opposed to the LTTE, was on a fortnight-long tour to India along with Anandasangaree, President of Tamil United Liberation Front and T Sritharam of Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, to drum up support for moderate Tamil parties in Sri Lanka.

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