President in China next week

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit China next week to attend the 4th Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

The summit will be held in Shanghai from May 20 to 22. CICA is a multinational forum comprising 24 members and nine observer states including the US.

A number of world leaders including Iranian and Russian presidents and UN Secretary General Banki Moon will attend the summit which is held under the theme 'increasing dialogue, mutual trust and collaboration to build a new Asia that is peaceful, stable and cooperative'.

This will be 1st CICA summit Sri Lanka will be participating, after it received observer status in May 2013. The President will be accompanied by External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris.