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Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa joined the former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in supporting the Elephant Action Network, a project of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), at the foundation’s 10th annual meeting in New York.
The project aims to put an international spotlight on the crisis facing African elephants.
Several other leaders were present at the event, including Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba and the deputy prime minister of Vietnam, Pham Binh Minh.
According to the official government news site, the president was invited by Hillary Clinton earlier this year.
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Rajapaksa is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly this week and is holding several bilateral meetings on its sidelines.
The president met with Nepali Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón and Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma on Wednesday, according to the presidential media unit.
He was accompanied by Minister of External Affairs GL Peiris and several other ministers, in addition to Permanent Representative to the UN Palitha Kohona and former military commander Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva, who is the deputy permanent representative to the UN.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also due to meet Rajapaksa this week, while US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal met with GL Peiris on Tuesday.