Image Source : FILE PHOTO/ PTI Pakistan PM Imran Khan arrives in Sri Lanka on his maiden go to
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived right here on Tuesday on his maiden go to to the island nation throughout which he’ll maintain wide-ranging talks with high Sri Lankan management on numerous points akin to commerce, defence and expertise. Khan, who’s the primary head of state to go to Sri Lanka because the COVID-19 pandemic, will maintain conferences with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He may even lead delegation-level talks, protecting all areas of cooperation between the 2 nations, together with commerce, funding, well being, training, agriculture, science and expertise, along with defence and tradition tourism.
Khan may even take part in a joint ‘Trade and Investment Conference’ aimed toward selling commerce and funding between the 2 nations. Plenty of agreements to reinforce bilateral cooperation will probably be signed in the course of the go to.
This is Khan’s first go to to Sri Lanka after assuming the workplace in 2018.
His final go to to Sri Lanka was in 1986 when he was the captain of Pakistan cricket workforce in the course of the acrimonious Test collection the place he accused the native umpires of bias.
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This is the primary go to by a Pakistan prime minister to Sri Lanka since Nawaz Sharif visited the nation in 2016.
Ahead of his go to, the Sri Lankan authorities final week cancelled Khan’s deliberate speech to Parliament, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is claimed that the speech to Parliament had been included in Khan’s itinerary on the Pakistan authorities’s request. The handle was scheduled for February 24.
Dawn newspaper quoting Sri Lankan media studies stated that there have been parts inside the Sri Lankan authorities, who didn’t need the speech to happen as they feared that doing so might additional hurt ties with India, which have already been strained after the cancellation of a deal over the East Container Terminal in Colombo port.
Khan’s go to additionally coincides the present controversy over the compelled cremations of the island’s minority Muslim neighborhood members who die because of the COVID-19. The authorities continues its coverage of compelled cremations regardless of objections from rights teams.
Khan congratulated Sri Lanka earlier this month when Prime Minister Mahinda made a remark in parliament that burials can be allowed for Muslim victims of COVID-19. However, the choice is but to be carried out.
International rights group Amnesty International in an open letter to Khan had urged him to take up the problem of compelled cremations with Sri Lankan leaders throughout his go to.
“We urge you to lift this concern of compelled cremations on the highest ranges attainable throughout your go to to Sri Lanka, in solidarity with a minority neighborhood who has been stripped of any technique of recourse. We urge you to name upon the Government of Sri Lanka to cease compelled cremations and to deliver to an finish discrimination confronted by the Muslim neighborhood in Sri Lanka,” the letter stated.
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