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EAM yet to receive CHOGM delegates’ requests to visit North
View(s):The External Affairs Ministry (EAM) is yet to receive official intimation from any Commonwealth country of their delegates’ desire to travel to the north during their stay in Sri Lanka, a senior EAM official said. “We have not had such requests on behalf of any of the leaders of countries or other senior officials attending the Commonwealth meeting to visit the North. But if they do make such requests, we will facilitate such visits,” EAM Secretary, Karunatillake Amunugama said.
Both, British Prime Minister David Cameron and New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully have said they intend to travel to the NP during their visit to Sri Lanka to participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo (CHOGM) to be held between November 10 and 17.
However, to date, no dates have been announced for the visit. The New Zealand Foreign Minister has said he plans to travel to the northern region to see firsthand what life is like for civilians, following the end of the decades-long civil war in 2009.
“New Zealand has a strong interest in the progress being made on reconciliation and devolution in the north, and I will report back to the Prime Minister on the situation there, ahead of the CHOGM Leaders’ Retreat,” he has said.