Sri Lanka Optimistic About Trade Commission With Russia Convening in 2020 - Ambassador

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th June, 2020) The next session of the Sri-Lankan-Russian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation is being prepared and both sides are "pretty optimistic" that it will take place in the second half of this year, Sri Lanka's new Ambassador to Russia, Prof. M.D. Lamawansa, told Sputnik in his first interview since being appointed.

Earlier in the year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid a visit to the island nation and said that the third meeting of the bilateral commission would be held in Moscow in the second half of 2020.

"Both sides are pretty optimistic about and preparing for the commission meeting. Of course, it is subject to the changing situation of the pandemic.

The ongoing preparations involve the implementation of the decisions taken at the previous meeting and also generating new ideas. Discussions are ongoing and as I said both sides are pretty optimistic about having it very early. I am very optimistic that the meeting will take place in the latter half of this year," Lamawansa said.

According to the Russian Federal Customs Service, Russian-Sri Lankan trade amounted to $400.1 million in 2018 and to $327.8 million in the period between January 2019 and October of that year. While Sri Lanka exports to Russia food and agriculture stocks, Russia exports to the country products of the metallurgical, chemical and cellulose-and-paper industries, as well as food, wood and mineral products.