Sri Lankan President holds bilateral discussions with Prime Minister of Israel

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa accompanied by the First Lady Shiranthi Wickremasinghe Rajapaksa arrived in Jerusalem, Israel, Wednesday morning for the final stop in his tri-nation tour of Middle East.


The President and the delegation arrived in Jerusalem from Bethlehem where President Rajapaksa concluded a two-day visit, following another two-day visit in Jordan.

President Rajapaksa met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem and held bilateral discussions on a range of issues.

The discussions were mainly focused on the areas of agriculture, ICT, water management, trade and employment.

The Israeli delegation comprised Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli National Security Advisor Yossi Cohen, Chief of National Information Directorate Liran Dan, Ambassador of Israel to the United States Ron Dermer, and Non-Resident Ambassador to Sri Lanka in New Delhi Alon Ushpiz.

The Sri Lankan delegation headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa comprised Minister of External Affairs Prof. G. L. Peiris, Monitoring MP of the Ministry of External Affairs Sajin de Vaas Gunawardena, Parliamentarians Roshan Ranasinghe, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga and Sri Lanka's Ambassador in Jordan Sarath D. Wijesinghe.

On Thursday the President will meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres, attend a tree-planting and meet with a business delegation.