Nirupama Rao calls on Foreign Minister Bogollagama
March 8, 2010 07:04 pm
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao during her official visit to Sri Lanka called on Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama today (March 8).
Ms. Rao who is the first senior Indian official to visit
Minister Bogollagama expressed to the Indian Foreign Secretary his appreciation of her visit, which also included the inauguration of the Sri Lanka–India English Language Training Centre in Peradeniya established with the assistance of the Indian authorities.
The Foreign Secretary had also announced that the present
corpus fund of the India-Sri Lanka Foundation which consists at present of
Indian Rs.60 million on the basis of equal contributions by
Foreign Minister bogollagama welcomed this forthcoming
Indian initiative which would add to the capacity of the Foundation to
undertake more activities. The Minister also said that
During the conversation between the Minister and the Foreign
Secretary, the need for continued vigilance against allowing terrorism to
threaten the South Asian region, was underlined. The Minister mentioned that
Minister Bogollagama said Sri Lanka is thankful for the support and co-operation extended by India during Sri Lanka’s tenure as the Chair of SAARC, which commenced at the August 2008 Colombo Summit and will terminate when Bhutan assumes that responsibility, at the forthcoming April 2010 Summit in Thimphu. It is indeed welcome that SAARC is now moving from a phase of declaration to implementation, with many key regional projects due to be shortly operationalised, the Foreign Minister said.
During the discussion on bilateral relations, Minister
Bogollagama pointed out that President Rajapaksa was conferred at the
Presidential Election the historic responsibility of leading the nation for another
seven years. Given that the President’s vision is for
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao pointed out that she had
brought with her an invitation for President Mahinda Rajapaksa to visit
The Indian Foreign Secretary was joined in the call on the Minister
by the Indian High Commissioner to