Prof. Peiris off to India for bilateral talks
by Manjula Fernando
External Affairs Minister Prof.G.L.Peiris will visit India this week
for bi-lateral talks with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj. This will be
Prof.Peiris's first official meeting with Swaraj since her taking office
as the External Affairs Minister in May.
He will be in India for three days, an official source said.
Meanwhile South African special envoy to Sri Lanka, Cyril Ramphosa is
expected to arrive in Colombo on Monday on a pre-planned visit.
A few months ago, Deputy South African Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim and
Roelf Meyer, who was the head of delegation which represented the ruling
national party at the negotiations with ANC to end apartheid, visited
Sri Lanka to discuss the grounds for sharing reconciliation strategies
and the mechanism behind the South African Truth Commission.
Ramphosa who is the Deputy President of the African National Congress
(ANC) was appointed South Africa's special envoy to Sri Lanka to assist
in initiatives for 'bringing about peace and reconciliation'.
The meeting, which ensued Zuma's discussions with President Mahinda
Rajapaksa during CHOGM in Colombo last November, was announced by South
African President Jacob Zuma in his 6th state of the nation address in
February.
Soon after his appointment a team comprising the Leader of the House
and Irrigation and Water Resources Management Minister Nimal Siripala de
Silva, Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister
Douglas Devananda, Investment Promotion Deputy Minister Faiszer
Musthapha, External Affairs Ministry Monitoring MP Sajin de Vass
Gunawardena and the Organizer of the SLFP for Batticaloa district Arun
Thambimuttu visited South Africa to hold discussions with Ramphosa and
the ruling African National Congress leaders. |
