UK visit postponed over busy schedule

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has had a busy schedule of foreign visits recently to India, the United States of America and China. There is also the important matter of the inauguration of his second term of office in mid November, leading to a very busy schedule in Sri Lanka. His proposed visit to the United Kingdom at the invitation of the Oxford Union has been postponed, to a more suitable time and the British Authorities have been informed, the External Affairs Ministry said.

It is regretted that the media organizations that carried the news item about the alleged cancellation of the proposed visit by the President to the Unite Kingdom have done so without any inquiry from the External Affairs Ministry, the President Secretariat or the Sri Lanka High Commission in London, the Minister said.