Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived on Tuesday for a two-day visit to Sri Lanka at the invitation of the country's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
This is his first visit to Sri Lanka since taking office as Prime Minister. On his arrival in Colombo, the Prime Minister was received by his counterpart in Sri Lanka and presented a guard of honor. He was later introduced to members of the Sri Lankan cabinet.
In a tweet, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister said: "I would like to welcome Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, who is on his first visit to SriLanka. I look forward to speaking to the Prime Minister and his delegation on matters of mutual interest.
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The Prime Minister will hold talks with Sri Lankan leaders to further improve bilateral cooperation in various sectors, accompanied by a high-level delegation of cabinet members and senior officials.
During the visit, Prime Minister Imran will meet with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Sri Lankan counterpart to discuss important regional and international issues.
He will also hold delegation-level discussions on all areas of cooperation between the two countries, including trade, investment, health, education, agriculture, science and technology, and defense and cultural tourism.
Prime Minister Imran will also participate in a joint "Trade and Investment Conference" to promote trade and investment between the two countries. A number of agreements will be signed during the visit to improve bilateral cooperation.
The Federal Foreign Office (FO) had previously announced that the re-establishment of the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Association would be announced to further promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. However, FO did not mention the speech to the Sri Lankan Parliament.
When the event was canceled, the Sri Lankan government officially stated it was due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, diplomatic sources and Sri Lankan media said they were concerned that Prime Minister Imran might be talking about the situation in occupied Kashmir, which could further damage Colombo's already troubled relations with New Delhi.
Another speculation that has been circulating is that the Sri Lankan government is concerned that Prime Minister Imran's speech could point to the situation of Sri Lankan Muslims who have been victims of abuse and discrimination in the Buddhist-dominated country.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa spoke tonight about thier bilateral talks. The Prime Minister and I have agreed to work closely together to improve our bilateral cooperation in business and in a number of other areas such as trade, investment, science, technology, defense and education.
Pakistan-Sri Lanka free trade Agreement
Mahinda Rajapaksa also agree to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. Our talks also covered important regional and international issues and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tourism Development
Mahinda Rajapaksa said we have also agreed to work for increased activity in the tourism and aviation sector. SriLanka is grateful to Pakistan for agreeing to open pilgrimage corridors for Sri Lankans to visit ancient Buddhist sites in Pakistan.
Srillankan prime minister said, we believe that political stability and regional peace will be the key to sustainable development, economic growth and prosperity in South Asia. I admire Prime Minister Imran Khan for his efforts to combat poverty and socio-economic inequalities, which play an important role in our development agenda.
We will continue to work together to combat terrorism, religious fundamentalism and extremism. We also agreed to continue the current mechanism to limit drug trafficking, arms smuggling and other illegal activities by sharing information through the relevant authorities.
We thanks Pakistan for the cooperation in sports and help to improve the sports training facilities in the country. The resumption of parliamentary interaction through the Pakistan - Sri Lanka parliamentary friendship groups was also extensively discussed.
Several MoUs were also signed today between both nations to put into effect the bilateral discussions that were had. I thank PM @ImranKhanPTI, the Government and people of #Pakistan for remaining a steadfast friend to #SriLanka throughout, particularly in times of great need. pic.twitter.com/9lAoTAAbeH
— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) February 23, 2021
The special assistant to Prime minister for overseas Pakistanis Mr Zulfkar Bukhari tweeted about tourism MoU as he said " The agreement was signed today in Colombo for tourism Together, we are working to increase the number of tourists between Pakistan and Sri Lanka and develop Buddhist heritage sites".
We look forward to exciting things with the upcoming cricket trip from Pakistan to Sri Lanka and our partnership to promote tourism.
MoU signed at Colombo today for tourism. Together we will work on increasing no. of tourists between 🇵🇰🇱🇰 & developing Buddhist heritage sites.
— Sayed Z Bukhari (@sayedzbukhari) February 23, 2021
Looking fwd to exciting things in store with Pakistan’s upcoming cricket tour to Sri Lanka & our work together on tourism promotion. pic.twitter.com/mFtU87zv8f
