Iran, Sri Lanka eyeing expansion of bilateral ties

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who is in Sri Lanka on an official visit, met with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday after arriving in capital  Colombo.

During the meeting, Maithripala Sirisena referred to the old history of bilateral and friendly relations between Iran and Sri Lanka and revived the memory of his ‘beneficial and constructive’ visit to Iran earlier in May where he met with Iranian senior officials on expanding bilateral cooperation, especially in areas of energy.

“There is no barrier obstructing the expansion and deepening of bilateral relations between Iran and Sri Lanka,” he asserted after voicing his country’s willingness for further bolstering and developing of bilateral cooperation and alignment at international communities.

Iranian top diplomat, for his part, delivered ‘the warmest greetings of President Rouhani’ to Sri Lankan president and re-voiced Iran’s resolute will for expanding friendly and intimate relations.

The Iranian diplomatic chief described the areas of cooperation between the two countries as diverse and broad and called for expansion of interactions in areas of energy, agriculture, as well as technical and engineering services.

The both sides continued their dialogue exchanging views on the latest most important regional and international developments.

Maithripala Sirisena visited Iran on May 13, 2018 where he signed a host of MoUs and agreements on economic and cultural cooperation with Iran. Also at a joint presser on the same day, the two presidents called for the establishment of a direct flight between Tehran and Colombo to boost tourism.

President Maithripala Sirisena and President Rouhani had already met on the sidelines of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit in Bangkok in October 2016.

Also on January 15, 2017, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Science, Technology and Research Susil Premajayantha met with Iranian Foreign minister Zarif while he was visiting Tehran at the invitation of Iran’s Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari.

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