Fox postpones SL visit
17 December 2010 02:12 am
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British Defence Secretary Liam Fox has postponed a visit to Sri Lanka, following reported Foreign Office concerns about the trip, the Guardian reported.
A spokesman for the defence secretary said: "Dr Fox has postponed his private visit to Sri Lanka due to an extension to his scheduled official visit to the Gulf. He intends to carry out an official visit to Sri Lanka next year, during which he proposes to fulfil the speaking engagement that he had planned."
The Foreign Office is debating whether to appeal to Downing Street to prevent Fox from visiting Sri Lanka.
The row erupted after Fox, who has personal links to Sri Lanka from his time as a Foreign Office minister in the 1990s and who has visited the country twice in the last 13 months, accepted an invitation to deliver the Lakshman Kadirgamar memorial lecture. The invitation was issued by the widow of the late foreign minister, who was murdered by a Tamil Tiger sniper in 2005.