Monday, October 1, 2012

The annual bilateral consultations between Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan



Published on Saturday, 29 September 2012 15:28 | News.lk
The first round of annual bilateral consultations between Sri Lanka and the Republic of Kazakhstan took place in Colombo on 25th September 2012 at the Ministry of External Affairs.
 The Kazakhstan delegation was led by Mr. Aidarbek Tumatov, Director General, Asia and Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan and included senior officials from the Ministry of Industry and New Technology, Tourism and Economic Development.  The Sri Lanka delegation was led by Mr. K. Amunugama, Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and consisted of senior officials from the Ministry of Economic Development, Department of Commerce, Export Development Board and the National Tourism Development Authority.  The two sides discussed a range of issues relating to the further strengthening of bilateral cooperation in the political, economic, cultural, scientific and the educational fields.
Preparations for the state visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Kazakhstan before the end of this year and a review of the status of a number of bilateral agreements which are currently being negotiated were also discussed during the consultations.
The members of the delegation visited the Export Development Board and toured production facilities in Galle in furtherance of their desire to increase bilateral trade.
 The first round of consultations took place in Colombo following the visit of the Minister of External Affairs, Prof. G.L. Peiris to Kazakhstan in May 2012 during which a Memorandum of Understanding on Annual Bilateral Consultations between the two countries was signed.