ISLAMABAD - High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, Ambassador Admiral (R) Ravindra C Wijegunaratne on Friday said the people of Sri Lanka esteemed Pakistan as a friendly country unlike any other nation for its unprecedented support against terrorism. He was addressing the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS)’s seminar on “Building on Pakistan-Sri Lanka Cooperation” here as the keynote speaker. Ambassador Ravindra said Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister and the world’s first female premier Sirimavo Bandaranaike despite her close relationship with her Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi gave safe passage and permission to Pakistan to use its airspace and Colombo air base during its 1971 War. However, Sri Lank fought thirty years long worst war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), he said, adding, “No nation supported us like Pakistan in this war and we have memory like elephants to keep it intact in our minds.” The Pakistan Armed Forces, he said had forged deep ties with the Sri Lankan military that played a crucial and decisive part in the war against LTTE. Sri Lanka, he said had 74% Buddhist,16% Muslims and the remaining part of population comprising of Hindus.
“Pakistan is sitting on a goldmine of Gandhara civilization based Buddhist site whereas 9.3 million Buddhist globally visit their religious sites world over that can be tapped by Pakistan to benefit its tourism sector and national economy,” he suggested.
Sri Lankan nation, he said is the largest exporter of eye cornea and had exported around 88,000 corneas world over with more than 36,000 sent to Pakistan. “Every Sri Lankan writes in his last will that if possible his or her eyes be donated to a Pakistani,” he added.
Commenting on the mutually shared cultural affinities between the friendly nations, he said the Lankan nation’s religion is cricket. “Sri Lanka has great curiosity of having green shirts facing Sri Lanka’s women cricket team in Asia Cup semi finals and wants Pakistan to defeat India in the finals.”
Ambassador Ravindra mentioned that there were 120 items that could be imported and exported without tax after the free trade agreement (FTA) of Pakistan with Sri Lanka.
He said, “We have no direct flights between the two countries as there’s very low competition among the local and regional players. It needs to be addressed to boost tourism and close tries.”
LOLC microfinance bank of Sri Lanka has 85 branches in Pakistan including one in the federal capital that is supporting small entrepreneurs particularly females to get easy loans for their businesses, he said.
In his opening remarks, President IRS, Ambassador Jauhar Saleem said the relationships between Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been cordial since independence. He added that South Asia would have been a different region if the entire region had such level of ties.
During times of conflict and peace both the countries helped each other whereas their position and terms on key matters at international foras has been tremendous, he added.
He mentioned that both the nations had witnessed improved trade and investment cooperation in recent years, whereas Pakistan’s Buddhism tourism potential demands to build a dialogue on it.
Ambassador Saleem said, “Sri Lankan foreign minister is coming to Pakistan after a hiatus of two years after the Covid-19 pandemic that would resume bilateral talks.”
He commended that the Sri Lankan ambassador is very popular in Pakistan and got the highest award of Nishan-i-Imtiaz.
Ambassador Seema Elahi Baloch former high commissioner to Sri Lanka said the country helped Pakistan graciously during dengue outbreak in Punjab.
However, “We have been supporting each other internationally at global foras and will continue to do so. The Defence Cooperation between the two is important and will be galvanized further, whereas at the moment both the nations have $1 billion trade volume that can be scaled up to $2.7 billion,” she added.
She underlined that there was a lot of scope for joint ventures to explore pharmaceutical, ayurvedic, plastics and textiles potential.
She noted that encouraging trade links and businesses needed environmental trust with appropriate information, whereas there was no media and cultural exchanges between Sri Lanka and Pakistan that were important in that regard.
“Tourism and hospitality industry is one of the mainstays of Sri Lanka. It can guide us on keeping tourist attractions neat and clean, and develop sustainable and eco-friendly hoteling infrastructure,” she added.
Ambassador Baloch also called for promotion of drama and film exchange with the aim to focus on culture and media collaborations to improve economic cooperation through public diplomacy.
Former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, and head of Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies, Major General (R) Saad Khattak delivered a detailed presentation on geography, demography, history, defence collaboration and economic engagement between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“Pak-Sri Lanka trade is hovering around $400-500 million despite a billion dollars potential despite FTA in 2005 which needs to be enhanced whereas both nations have similar security threats internally and externally,” he added.
He mentioned that Pak-Sri Lanka ties remained security centric throughout that made the country’s relevance decreasing amid the latter’s policy shift over geoeconomics.
He highlighted that the attitude of both the countries’ leadership and bureaucracy was taking toll on the current ties that demanded diversification of ties and proactive leadership in the foreign office domain.
Prof Dr Shaheen Akhtar HOD at National Defence University (NDU) said Sri Lankans admire and love Pakistanis at the grassroots level. She shared her memories during her fellowship in Sri Lanka.
She added that both nations have religious, cultural connectivity and social affinity but despite all commonalities there was lack of full scale cooperation, whereas trade and investment needed to be promoted through joint ventures especially in the textile sector.
DG South Asia and SAARC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Illyas Mehmood Nizami said Sri Lanka has achieved great human development with limited resources whereas political good will and commitment on both sides was the basis of cordial and robust relationships between the two nations.
“Sri Lanka was the first country in the world with which Pakistan signed it’s first FTA. We should also focus on services exports and trade as well as defence is another important dimension of this relationship,” he added.
He mentioned that on Buddhism and shared history, the Ministry was working on this important aspect and that’s why it had hosted an international symposium to showcase Gandhara Civilization potential.
The Sri Lankan Minister for Religious Affairs and high ranking monks participated in that seminar, he added.