The Sri Lanka-India Parliamentary Friendship Association for the 10th Parliament of Sri Lanka was set up on May 8 at the Parliament complex under the patronage of the Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne. The High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha was the guest of honour.
Nearly 100 members including several Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MPs across political groups participated. During the meeting Minister of Health and Mass Media, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa was elected as the President of the Association.
MPs G.G. Ponnambalam, J.C. Alawathuwala, Thanura Dissanayake and Ravi Karunanayake were elected as Vice Presidents. Dr. Kavinda Heshan Jayawardhana was elected as the Secretary. MPs Sivagnanam Shritharan and Anushka Thilakarathne were elected as Assistant Secretaries, and Deputy Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure, Sundaralingam Pradeep, as the Treasurer.
Speaker of the Lok Sabha (Parliament of India), Shri Om Birla sent a letter to Speaker Dr. Wickramaratne congratulating him and fellow MPs on the re-convening of the Sri Lanka-India Parliamentary Friendship Association.
Dr. Wickramaratne emphasised the historical religious and cultural ties between India and Sri Lanka. He said that India had time and again demonstrated itself as a reliable friend of Sri Lanka and welcomed the continuing expansion of the bilateral partnership. The High Commissioner underscored the shared democratic traditions between the two ‘civilisational twins’. Congratulating the President, office-bearers and members of the Association, he expressed confidence that the Parliamentary Friendship Association will further re-energise and bolster the people-to-people ties between India and Sri Lanka.
During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka in April this year, 1,000 training slots for Sri Lankans were announced.
These slots cut across sectors ranging from Parliamentarians, civil services, entrepreneurship to music and cinema. The first batch of Parliamentarians and Parliamentary staff will leave for New Delhi for a week-long training program at the Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies this month.
The Sri Lanka-India Parliamentary Friendship Association is another step in the implementation of the joint vision ‘Fostering Partnerships for a Shared Future’ adopted by the two leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during the latter’s visit to India in December last year.
Regular parliamentary level exchanges to promote democratic values and share expertise on institutional best practices will further deepen the bilateral ties between the two countries and transform the relationship into a new standard for friendly and neighbourly ties.
