President ends Jordan tour strengthening relations
President Rajapaksa who ended a successful visit to Jordan arrives in Palestine.
The President began his Middle East tour from Jordan. The most significant occasion of the President’s visit to Jordan was the conduct of bilateral talks with the King of Jordan King Abdulla ll Ibn Al Hussein at the Royal Hashemite Court in Amman last afternoon. The two leaders held discussions on a number of topics relevant to both countries, including cooperation in defense-related activities and progress of the Joint Committee that was established after the signing of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement in 2007.
The President requested King Abdulla to consider a duty concession for the tea that Jordan imports from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is currently the largest supplier of tea to Jordan. Ceylon tea is one of Sri Lanka’s major exports to this Middle Eastern nation, contributing 80 percent of Sri Lanka ‘s total exports to Jordan , which re-exports this tea to places such as Iraq and Palestine.
Discussing other areas of potential collaboration, King Abdulla briefed President Rajapaksa and the Sri Lankan delegation of an open-source-software-supported telemedicine project that Jordan is launching. Noting that Sri Lanka, too, could benefit from similar strategies, King Abdulla invited the Sri Lankan delegation to visit the project in Jordan.
The two leaders strongly agreed to collaborate on multilateral issues, and President Rajapaksa invited King Abdulla to visit Sri Lanka, which he said he looks forward to doing in the near future. The King said that he is eagerly awaiting to visit Sri Lanka.
This is the third time the President and King Abdulla are meeting. The last time President Rajapaksa was in Jordan was in 2009 when he attended the G-11 Summit on an invitation extended by the King. Prior to that, the President and King Abdulla met in 2007, again during the G-11 Summit. During that meeting, the two countries signed an agreement on cultural promotion.
First Lady Shirnthi Wickremasinghe Rajapaksa, Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris, Monitoring MP of the Ministry of External Affairs Mr. Sajn de Vaas Ginawardene, Parliamentarians Kamala Ranatunga and Roshan Ranasinghe and UNP Parliamentarian John Amaratunga joined in this occasion.
In the meantime, the President and his entourage left fir Palestine today on a two day official visit. During this tour, President Rajapaksa will offer floral tribute to to former President Yasser Arafat’s mausoleum. He will also meet members of the Sri Lanka Palestine Friendship Association in which he was also a former President and will visit the Holy Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
