The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth will be making an official visit to Sri Lanka this week, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
This will be Patricia Scotland QC’s first visit to Sri Lanka since she assumed the Office of Secretary-General in April 2016.
The Secretary-General will meet with TNA leader, R. Sampanthan, as well as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, among several other ministers.
The main objective of the Secretary-General’s meetings will be to explore greater cooperation and collaboration in the implementation of the agreed outcomes at the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, including promoting intra-Commonwealth trade, the MFA said.
The Commonwealth was criticised for engaging closely with Mahinda Rajapaksa and ignoring Sri Lanka's human rights abuses during the tenure of Ms Scotland's predecessor.