21 September 2021 12:00 am Views - 102
Sri Lanka and Turkey expressed the need to confront terrorism in all its forms as well as linkages to the rise of extremism and spoke against the politicisation of human rights and selective use of human rights as tools by some parties, and pledged to expand international cooperation in the United Nations and other fora, a statement from the Foreign Ministry said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu received Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris at the Turkish House, the Chancery building of the Turkish Permanent Mission in New York last Friday for a bilateral meeting between the two sides, on the sidelines of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu recalled fondly his fruitful two-day visit to Sri Lanka in 2016. The Minister appreciated the arrangements extended to him during the visit. Foreign Minister Peiris also recalled fondly a number of visits to Turkey and commented on the rich experiences he had. The Turkish Minister was happy to observe that a Hony. Consul of Sri Lanka would take office shortly in his home town.
In evaluating their mutual visits, the two Foreign Ministers noted that it would be an opportune time to enhance further contacts by visits and interactions at other levels, to strengthen the excellent ties of friendship between the two countries, particularly economic and trade ties. Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu noted that despite the two countries being geographically far, the ties between the two were very close. Foreign Minister Peiris noted the generous assistance given to Sri Lanka from Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic with the provision of ventilators and other equipment and appreciated that Turkey had also extended support in the aftermath of the Tsunami where housing was provided. The Ministers appreciated that bilateral trade between the two had steadily increased from US 100 Million and was projected to reach US 200 million in the year.
Foreign Minister Peiris highlighted that there was a need for Sri Lankan exports to Turkey to diversify from its 80% consisting of tea and noted that there was tremendous potential between the two countries to boost economic, trade and investment in growth areas such as construction and the pharmaceutical industries, where Turkey had expertise and Sri Lanka was looking at developing this area by having specific economic free zones for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals for the local market and beyond. The Turkish Foreign Minister underscored that the Turkish construction sector was the world’s second-largest and that they had a number of projects globally and not just in their region.