Sri Lanka looks for Saudi support in development process

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is looking forward to Saudi assistance in its development process, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said on Thursday after talks with the Kingdom’s deputy foreign minister on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Rim Association meeting in Colombo.
Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Abdulkarim Al-Khuraiji was on an official trip to Sri Lanka this week, representing Riyadh at the IORA Council of Ministers meeting. Saudi Arabia joined the regional organization this year as a dialogue partner.
“We discussed the bilateral relationship and how to strengthen that relationship. Saudi (Arabia) thanks Sri Lanka for unwavering and continuous support for its bid for the 2030 Expo and pledged to strengthen further engagement in Sri Lanka’s development process, particularly by providing further employment opportunities as well as further investment,” Sabry told Arab News.
Sri Lanka was one of the first countries to support Saudi Arabia’s bid to host World Expo 2030 in Riyadh, which the Kingdom officially submitted in September 2022.
The Saudi Embassy in Colombo said after the meeting that the ministers had also “reviewed bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka and opportunities to develop them in all fields to achieve the common interests.”
The island nation expanded cooperation with the Kingdom in May, following the first session of the Saudi-Sri Lankan Joint Committee in Riyadh. The two countries also marked a new step in bilateral relations then, as they signed a memorandum on political consultations.
This development was followed by Sri Lanka reorienting its diplomacy to prioritize the Middle East in August, as Colombo hopes to increase people-to-people relations and boost arrangements to facilitate sustainable commerce ties with the region.

Sri Lanka looks for Saudi support in development process