No visa denial for Swedish FM
His visit expected in May:
The attention of the Government of Sri Lanka has been drawn to
reported statements alleging that a visa had been denied to the Swedish
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt to visit Sri Lanka together with the French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the British Foreign Secretary
David Miliband.
Therefore the allegation that a visa had been denied to the Swedish
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt to visit Sri Lanka together with the French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the British Foreign Secretary
David Miliband is baseless, it added.
The statement further said:
“Further it may noted that when the visits by the Foreign Minister of
France and the British Foreign Secretary were discussed with Sri Lanka
both at Presidential and Ministerial levels, there was no indication of
the participation of the Swedish Foreign Minister.
The Government of Sri Lanka envisages the visits of the French and
the British Foreign Ministers purely on a bilateral basis and not in
terms of their membership in a regional or United Nations context.
Further it was found to be rather unwieldy to facilitate three Foreign
Ministers at one given time at such short notice. In addition, there is
an EU-troika visit scheduled to take place from May 12-13, 2009 where
Sweden would be represented.
It was in these circumstances that Sri Lanka requested that the visit
of the Swedish Foreign Minister be undertaken in early May, which was
communicated to the Swedish Foreign Ministry.
“It is extremely regrettable that the Government of Sri Lanka is
being wrongly accused of preventing the visit of the Swedish Foreign
Minister by stating that it would be interpreted as a challenge to the
dialogue with the EU and consequences will follow bilaterally and
multilaterally.
It needs to be understood that in this instance there had been no
formal prior consultations with the government of Sri Lanka with regard
to the visit of the Swedish Foreign Minister. The statements made in
this regard seem to be emanating from a unilateral decision made on the
part of Sweden and the EU with regard to the said visit.”
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