Gota visits Sudan

Wednesday, 5 September 2012 00:55 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Secretary of Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa was in the Republic of Sudan on an official visit from 26 to 30 August. During the visit the Secretary of Defence visited a number of important institutions and military installations.

The Secretary of Defence met with the Defence Minister of Sudan Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussain, Secretary General of Defence General Abdul Rahaman Mohamed Zain, Deputy Chief of Staff of Army General Emad Adawi and Chief of Joint Staff General Ismat Abdul Rahman. The meetings were centred on further consolidating and enhancing the existing ties and bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Secretary of Defence also visited the prestigious Military Joint Command and Staff College, Higher Military Academy, Military College and the Engineering Faculty of Karary University.

The heads of these institutes highly appreciated the visits to their institutes by the Secretary of Defence and expressed their desire to enhance the cooperation between Sudanese and Sri Lankan military training institutes in order to share expertise and knowledge.

While thanking for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to him and the delegation the Secretary of Defence reiterated the desire and need for expanding close bilateral cooperation between training institutes for sharing experience and knowledge for mutual benefit.

The Secretary of Defence extended an invitation to Sudanese delegations to visit Sri Lankan military training institutes for exploring further training opportunities. The invitation was accepted and arrangements will be made for such a visit in the near future.

The Secretary of Defence took the opportunity to visit libraries and meet the cadets and students of these training institutes.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Secretary of Defence and Urban Development and the Secretary General of the Sudanese Defence Ministry for promoting bilateral cooperation in the field of training.

The Secretary of Defence delivered a lecture at the renowned Defence College in Kartoum. His lecture on ‘Sri Lankan Experience in Defeating Terrorism and Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reconciliation’ was well received by all. The Sudanese senior armed officials were highly impressed by the Secretary’s lecture on the above subject and were eager to know more about the Sri Lankan experiences.

Officials from both nations expressed that the visit was timely and marked an important event in the relations between Sri Lanka and Sudan.