COLOMBO: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday met the new Sri Lankan leadership, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and discussed issues of trade, investment and tourism to further deepen the bilateral relations.
Qureshi arrived in Colombo on Sunday night on a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka to meet the country's newly-elected leadership and convey to it a felicitation message of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
According to the Pakistan Foreign Office, Qureshi also handed over a letter from President Arif Alvi to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and invited him to pay a visit to Islamabad at his earliest convenience.
Earlier, Qureshi held a separate meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena and apprised him about the "dire situation" in Kashmir.
"FM calls on the President of Sri Lanka. Bilateral issues, trade, investment and people to people contacts discussed. FM handed over a letter from the President to President of Sri Lanka and invited him to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Muhammad Faisal said in a tweet.
"FM calls on Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (Mahinda Rajapaksa). Very positive interaction. Deepening and further strengthening of bilateral relations discussed. Political will on both sides to take the relationship to the next level. A phenomenal day for Pakistan-Sri Lanka relations," Faisal said in another tweet.