President to visit Ukraine

The President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa will make an official visit to Ukraineon June 29 to July 2, 2010, Director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s information policy department Oleh Voloshyn has said.

Voloshyn said that this visit would be the first in the history of Ukrainian-Sri Lankan relations, and that it would help promote a bilateral political dialogue at the summit level, further developing cooperation between the two countries in the fuel and energy, military and technical, education, and culture and humanitarian spheres.

Voloshyn also added that the two countries expect to expand their international treaty framework and strengthen the two countries’ cooperation via international organizations.

The president of Sri Lankawill meet with the Ukrainian president and prime minister, as well as the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada and Foreign Ministry during his visit.

“The program of the visit also envisages holding a business forum aimed at dynamically developing bilateral contacts between enterprises and companies and improving the position of Ukrainian manufacturers on the market of Sri Lanka,” Voloshyn said.

According to him, during the visit, a range of bilateral agreements, in particular, on cooperation in the tourism and military and technical spheres, would be signed.