A pivotal meeting was held between Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Japan E. Rodney M. Perera and Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki at the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo, ahead of the latter’s forthcoming official visit to Sri Lanka next week. This formal meeting was pursuant to a brief exchange between Ambassador Perera and Finance Minister Suzuki had during the Garden Party hosted by their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan a month earlier.

Expressing gratitude for the opportunity to meet the Finance Minister, Ambassador Perera extended his deepest appreciation to Minister Suzuki and his team for their visit and dedicated efforts towards assisting Sri Lanka’s economic restructuring initiatives bilaterally and in the international arena. Ambassador Perera also emphasized Sri Lanka’s eagerness to modernize its economy, leveraging Japan’s experience and expertise from both the government and the corporate sectors.

The upcoming visit by Finance Minister Suzuki signifies an important milestone in fortifying bilateral relations and advancing Sri Lanka’s economic prospects through collaborative efforts between the two countries.

The visit by the Japanese Finance Minister to Sri Lanka, after a lapse of more than 10 years, is in continuance of bilateral consultations on Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process and efforts to reinvigorate economic cooperation between the two countries.

Several important visits, in the past eight months, are paving the way for renewed efforts for expansion of cooperation in multiple sectors. Following President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to Tokyo, in May 2023, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi undertook an official visit to Sri Lanka in July 2023, the first such high-level visit from Japan in more than four years.