{"id":11064,"date":"2025-12-25T18:12:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=11064"},"modified":"2025-12-25T18:12:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:12:32","slug":"good-friends-sri-lanka-envoy-hails-strong-ties-with-turkiye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/asia\/good-friends-sri-lanka-envoy-hails-strong-ties-with-turkiye\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Good friends’: Sri Lanka envoy hails strong ties with T\u00fcrkiye"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANKARA<\/strong>: Sri Lanka\u2019s newly appointed ambassador to T\u00fcrkiye, Niluka Kadurugamuwa, highlighted the strength of bilateral relations and called for sustained cooperation as the island nation recovers from recent floods and landslides that left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cT\u00fcrkiye and Sri Lanka have always been good friends. We have very strong bilateral relations,\u201d Kadurugamuwa told Anadolu in an interview, evaluating bilateral relations as well as the recent disaster that hit his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kadurugamuwa said approximately 1.7 million people were affected by cyclone Ditwah that hit in November, with 643 deaths confirmed and 70,000 to 75,000 people living in around 700 safe shelters across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said search and rescue operations have ended, with debris removal and reconstruction now underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The envoy shared that the government allocated additional funding for recovery efforts and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake personally announced various facilities and grants for rebuilding destroyed homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described the destruction as widespread and the largest natural catastrophe to hit Sri Lanka since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperation and historic ties<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emphasizing friendly relations with T\u00fcrkiye, Kadurugamuwa said diplomatic ties were established in 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe established our diplomatic relations in 1948, 77 years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cEven before that, during the Ottoman period, we had relations. Sri Lanka was part of the Maritime Silk Route, while T\u00fcrkiye was part of the Silk Road, so we have had historical connections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recalled that the Ottoman Empire appointed honorary consuls in Sri Lanka as far back as 1874 and T\u00fcrkiye was among the first countries to recognize Sri Lanka\u2019s independence. Sri Lanka\u2019s embassy in Ankara was established in 2012, followed by T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s mission in Colombo in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kadurugamuwa said cooperation spans politics, economy, culture, and education. \u201cWe cooperate in every sphere, particularly in politics, economy, culture, and education,\u201d he said, noting that Sri Lankan students study in T\u00fcrkiye through scholarships provided by the Turkish government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the third meeting of the Joint Economic Cooperation Commission was held last July, where economic cooperation was discussed in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s support during disasters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kadurugamuwa also highlighted T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s assistance after the 2004 tsunami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, T\u00fcrkiye rebuilt an entire village in Sri Lanka,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the village, consisting of around 430 houses, was inaugurated in 2005 by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the recent disaster, Kadurugamuwa said Sri Lanka appealed to international partners, including T\u00fcrkiye. Under the coordination of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) sent a two-member mission for assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs immediate relief, humanitarian aid packages for 3,000 people were distributed by the TIKA team,\u201d he said, adding that longer-term assistance is being evaluated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kadurugamuwa said he met the head of TIKA and requested long-term project support. \u201cHe asked us to prepare a list of projects so T\u00fcrkiye can assess which areas it can support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He encouraged Turkish citizens to visit Sri Lanka and invited Turkish businesspeople to invest, saying tourism infrastructure remains functional and conditions are favorable.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA: Sri Lanka\u2019s newly appointed ambassador to T\u00fcrkiye, Niluka Kadurugamuwa, highlighted the strength of bilateral relations and called for sustained cooperation as the island nation recovers from recent floods and landslides that left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced. \u201cT\u00fcrkiye and Sri Lanka have always been good friends. We have very strong bilateral relations,\u201d […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,396,342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-latest","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}