Nalinda Jayatissa elected Association’s President
Sri Lanka – India Parliamentary Friendship Association for the 10th Parliament of Sri Lanka was established at the Parliament complex under the patronage of the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, Hon. (Dr.) Jagath Wickramaratne. High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, H.E. Santosh Jha, was invited as the Guest of Honour at the meeting.
The meeting saw participation of nearly 100 members, including several Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and MPs across political groups.
During the meeting Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayatissa, Minister of Health and Mass Media, was elected the Association’s President.
Hon. MPs G.G. Ponnambalam, J.C. Alawathuwala, Thanura Dissanayake, Ravi Karunanayake were elected as the Vice – Presidents of the association. Further, Hon. (Dr.) Kavinda Heshan Jayawardhana was elected as the Secretary. Hon. MPs Sivagnanam Shritharan and Anushka Thilakarathne were elected as Assistant Secretaries, and Hon. Sundaralingam Pradeep, Deputy Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure as the Treasurer of the Association.
Shri Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Parliament of India sent a special letter to Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka congratulating him and fellow MPs on the re-convening of the Sri Lanka-India Parliamentary Friendship Association.
Speaking at the event, Hon. (Dr.) Jagath Wickramaratne emphasised the unparalleled connect of shared history, religion and culture between India and Sri Lanka. He shared that India had time and again demonstrated itself as a reliable friend of Sri Lanka and welcomed the continuing expansion of the bilateral partnership.
In his remarks, High Commissioner underlined the shared democratic traditions between the two ‘civilisational twins’.
Congratulating the President, office bearers, and members of the Association, he expressed confidence that the Parliamentary Friendship Association would further re-energize and bolster the people-to-people connection between India and Sri Lanka.
During the recent visit of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka in April 2025, 1000 training slots for Sri Lankans were announced.
These slots cut across sectors ranging from parliamentarians, civil services, and entrepreneurship to music and cinema. Under this, the first batch of Parliamentarians and Parliamentary Staff will head to New Delhi for a week-long training at the Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE) in May 2025.
The Sri Lanka-India Parliamentary Friendship Association is another step in the implementation of the joint vision ‘Fostering Partnerships for a Shared Future’ adopted by the two leaders, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President of Sri Lanka H.E. Anura Kumara Disanayaka, during the latter’s visit to India in December 2024.
Regular parliamentary-level exchanges to promote democratic values and share expertise on institutional best practices will further deepen the bilateral ties between the two countries and transform the relationship into a new standard for friendly and neighbourly relations.