SAARC Secy General Weerakoon on week-long India visit
New Delhi : Esala Ruwan Weerakoon, the Secretary-General of the SAARC, is on a week-long visit to India during which he will hold talks with senior officials on matters of regional cooperation, including combating the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Weerakoon, who arrived on Sunday, has served as Sri Lanka’s former High Commissioner to India.
On Monday, he will meet Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, and Secretary East in the Ministry of External Affairs Riva Ganguly Das.
He will also visit South Asian University on Friday.
Mr Weerakoon is visiting along with his wife Krishanti Weerakoon, who was born in New Delhi and has studied in the Indian capital. Her father Bernard Tilakaratna, was Sri Lanka’s longest-serving envoy to India from 1982 to 1989.
Though the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has been on the backburner for the past few years, in March last year, during a video conference of SAARC leaders Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested that the regional bloc cooperate on the COVID-19 crisis.
UNIÂ