MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2020) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is set to begin his Asia tour on Tuesday with a visit to Sri Lanka, a country where he started his diplomatic career as a Sinhala-speaking press attache in the Soviet embassy.
As part of the tour, the top Russian diplomat will also visit India and Uzbekistan.
In Sri Lanka, Lavrov will hold talks with Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
"During the talks, the sides will discuss the state and prospects of bilateral relations, as well as pressing issues on the regional and international agenda," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Ahead of the visit, the ministry noted that Russian-Sri Lankan political dialogue was steadily developing. Most recently the two countries held highest-level talks in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, in June 2019 when Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena met on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.
In November, Sri Lanka elected former Defense Secretary Rajapaksa as new president, which makes Lavrov's upcoming talks with him even more important.
"Sri Lanka is considered to be one of the key points of the maritime Silk Road of the 21st century. I think that Sri Lanka's importance will be increasing, so the interest of Russia, which is restoring its presence in the Indian Ocean in general and in Sri Lanka in particular, is obvious," an associate professor of the Moscow State University's Institute of Asian and African Countries, Boris Volkhonsky, told Sputnik.
In March 2017, Putin and Sirisena set the task of boosting bilateral trade to $700 million. Bilateral trade amounted to $400.1 million in 2018 and $327.8 million in the period between January-October 2019.
While Sri Lanka exports to Russia food and agriculture stocks (mostly tea), Russia ships to the country metallurgical, chemical and cellulose-and-paper products, as well as food, wood and minerals.
Sri Lanka is also popular among Russian tourists, with direct flights between the two capitals conducted under a 2012 agreement.
After a day-visit to Sri Lanka, Lavrov will head to India and then to Uzbekistan.
