Thursday, February 19, 2009

Sri Lankan President set to visit Nepal

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to visit Nepal in the first week of March.
He will be the highest-level dignitary to visit Nepal from any country after the Maoist-led government came into power last April. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' had invited President Rajapaksa to visit Nepal during the second BIMSTEC summit on November 11-13 in New Delhi.
A source in the Sri Lankan Embassy, Kathmandu confirmed that the President is visiting Kathmandu in the first week of March.
The details of the three-day visit have been kept under wraps due to security reasons. However, President Rajapaksa, who chairs South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), is scheduled to visit Lumbini and Swoyambhunath, a Buddhist shrine.
It will be the first ever visit of SAARC chairperson to Lumbini -- the birth place of Lord Buddha. Sri Lanka has a majority of Buddhist population and Sri Lankan tourists visiting Lumbini have been on the rise in recent years.
Nepal and Sri Lanka in January revised the decade-long Air Sevices Agreement (ASA) to start direct flights between Kathmandu and Colombo in the wake of increased tourist rush from Sri Lank.
Both the South Asian countries share harmonious relations and are active members of SAARC, apart from being members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) that comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Established in 1997, BIMSTEC is a $810 billion economy, sharing about 22 per cent of world population and 3.64 per cent of surface area.
The Sri Lankan government has in its latest attempt to crush the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam had dispatched 50,000 troops to the north-east of the island in an attempt to end the country's 30-year civil war.
Nepal, the youngest republic, has seen a flurry of high level delegates in the recent months.
Sri Lankan President's visit is expected to strengthen the relations between the two South Asian countries.

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