President Lennart Meri received Mrs. Sarala Manourie Fernando, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sri Lanka, who came to present her credentials, in Kadriorg today.
Presenting her credentials, the Ambassador of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka accentuated that although the diplomatic relations between the two countries are relatively new, Sri Lanka considers it important to appoint an Honorary Consul General to Estonia soon.

According to the Ambassador, Sri Lanka wishes to give more attention to projects of regional co-operation. As the Chairman of the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation, Sri Lanka welcomes Estonia's Baltic Sea policy and considers exchange of experiences highly necessary.

The Ambassador also forwarded the cordial greetings of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, President of Sri Lanka, to the Estonian leaders and Estonian people.

As President Meri said, Estonia is closely following the peoples' work to build up their states. On the meeting of the Estonian President and the Ambassador of Sri Lanka, it was also mentioned that international financial organisations should give more attention to the countries' individuality when allocating support. As the Ambassador said, the different needs of different countries have been taken into account after the financial crisis in Asia. Also the similarity between the Estonian and Tamil languages was discussed, and President Meri reminded that the Estonian statesmen and businessmen had visited Ceylon already between the two World Wars.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, October 7, 1999

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