Two Heads of State, Singaporean Prime Minister and the Indonesian President are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka this week on the invitation of President Maithripala Sirisena.
Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong will arrive in Sri Lanka at 4.20 p.m. tomorrow on a three-day visit, the first official visit of a Singaporean Premier to the island after 13 years, while Indonesian President Joko Widodo will undertake a two-day State visit to Sri Lanka from January 24-25. According to a statement by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Singaporean Premier will be received at the Presidential Secretariat on the morning of Tuesday, January 23. An official guard of honour and gun salute will be followed by official bilateral discussions with President Sirisena.
Prime Minister Lee will meet with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and discuss economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries. A landmark Free Trade Agreement between Sri Lanka and Singapore will also be signed following the talks.
“It will be the first trade agreement that Sri Lanka is forging in over a decade, the first agreement with a South East Asian country and the first comprehensive agreement for Sri Lanka going beyond goods and includes services, investment, and economic cooperation,” an official at the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade said. The Indonesian President will be accorded a ceremonial welcome with a guard of honour and a twenty-one gun salute at the Presidential Secretariat on the evening of Wednesday, January 24, followed by official bilateral discussions with President Sirisena on a wide range of issues of mutual interest. - AR