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Lanka readies formal application for ASEAN partnership
View(s):Sri Lanka is preparing a formal submission to the ASEAN Secretariat, in a bid to establish a sectoral dialogue partnership with ASEAN, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Once the formal submission is presented, it will be considered by the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN and, thereafter, move through the various levels of ASEAN process for a final decision by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ conference, the spokesman said.
President Maithripala Sirisena last week conveyed Sri Lanka’s intention to establish a Sectoral Dialogue Partnership with ASEAN during official talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in Colombo.
A Sectoral Partnership with ASEAN will mean concentrated cooperation in specified fields with this Southeast Asian regional body. Such areas could include cooperation in economic and environmental matters. At present ASEAN has sectoral partnerships with Norway, Switzerland and Pakistan.