PM meets delegation from Diet

Japan-Sri Lanka Parliament League President Husci Norota and the delegation yesterday called on Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka at the Prime Minister Office.

Norota is a very senior member of the Lower House of the Diet having once held Ministerial post on two occasions. This is his fourth visit to Sri Lanka.

The Prime Minister while welcoming the delegation recalled the long political, economic and cultural relations between Sri Lanka and Japan.

He paid tribute to Japan for being the largest bilateral donor to Sri Lanka for many years and expressed the hope that Japan would continue to assist Sri Lanka at the same level in future as well.

The Prime Minister explained that almost all political leaders belonging to successive governments in Sri Lanka had paid official visits to Japan but we have had no high level visit from Japan since the visit of former Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu to Sri Lanka in the early nineteen nineties.

During the recent visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Japan, an invitation was extended to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda who is a very long friend of Sri Lanka having held the post of President of Sri Lanka Friendship Association of Japan for many years to visit Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Wicrakmanayaka expressed the hope that Norota would persuade the Japanese Prime Minister to visit Sri Lanka soon.

The Prime Minister briefed the visiting delegation on the developments in the East and North of Sri Lanka and the efforts mae by the Government to liberate those areas from the clutches of terrorists and restore democracy and normalcy in those areas.

"When the North would be liberated from the terrorists which would not be very long it would be necessary to undertake a massive reconstruction programme as the entire infrastructure had been destroyed by the terrorists," he said.

He expressed the hope that the international community would extend assistance to Sri Lanka in the reconstruction and rehabilitation programme in there areas.

Norota congratulated the Sri Lankan Government for successfully holding the

SAARC Summit and for the victory achieved at the recent Provincial Council elections.

He said that during his stay in Sri Lanka he had visited many projects undertaken with Japanese assistance and pledged that Japan would continue to assist Sri Lanka in the future as well.

The Prime Minister told the delegation that he would be visiting Japan next month to inaugurate the Sri Lanka cultural heritage exhibition in Tokyo and in November to attend the Fifth World Buddhist Summit in Kobe.

Norota while thanking the Prime Minister for visiting Japan to attend two cultural events and said these events would help further develop bilateral and cultural relations.

He hoped that Prime Minister would undertake an official visit to Japan soon.