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President skips Bandung jubilee
View(s):President Maithripala Sirisena will skip the 50th anniversary of the Asia-Africa Summit, better known as the Bandung Conference, which will be held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta next week. A President’s Office spokesmen cited personal reasons for the decision by the President not to attend the conference, which Sri Lanka co-sponsored with Burma, India, Indonesia and Pakistan in 1955.Instead Sri Lanka will be represented at the conference by Higher Education Minister Sarath Amunugama.
The Asia-Africa Summit will be held from April 22-24 in Jakarta. On April 24, the participating leaders will move to Bandung to attend a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference. At the time of its founding in April 1955, representatives from 29 governments of Asian and African nations attended it to discuss peace and the role of the Third World in the Cold War, economic development and decolonisation. It has more than 100 members today.