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Saturday, 21 March 2015 00:50 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Sri Lankan Government plans to expand its cooperation with Pakistan to eradicate the illicit drug trafficking and the Cabinet has granted approval to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Pakistan in this regard.
Bilateral discussions between Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been commenced recently on the upgrading of cooperation on the prevention of the use of narcotic drugs, and psychotropic substances and on cooperation against illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their chemical precursors.
In these discussions stern attention has been focused on further strengthening action against these activities, as Sri Lankan authorities fear that the country has become a trans-shipment hub for the heroin trade.
Sri Lankan Police records had revealed that 53,000 people had been arrested for drug offences in 2013.
The Cabinet has approved the proposal put forward by the Minister of Public Security, Disaster Management and Christian Religious Affairs John Amaratunga to enter into a MOU between Sri Lanka and Pakistan to expand cooperation in curtailing the use of narcotic substances and their illicit trafficking.
The two Governments also will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding between Sri Lanka and Pakistan to enhance the existing mutual cooperation between the two countries on disaster management and the Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal made by Minister Amaratunga in this regard.
The MOU has been drafted with the objective of making a successful mechanism of disaster management.
According to this Memorandum of Understanding, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will cooperate with each other in the following sectors of disaster management: Community protection under the conditions of damages caused by storms and cyclones; Establishment of a community level pre-warning system on voluntary basis to minimise the community disaster dangers; Formulation of constitutional legal methods to monitor the development activities in areas threatened with floods, landslides and soil erosion; Create guidelines for cooperation on flood management; Establish pre-warning networks on floods and landslides; Establish fruitful disaster management services.
The two Governments will also cooperate on development of sports and a proposal put forward by the Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake to sign a MOU has been approved by the Cabinet.
The objective of this Memorandum of Understanding is to formulate a work plan for cooperation between the two countries for mutual effectiveness and expectations on research activities on sports, sport development, and exemplariness.
Attention will be focused on exchange of teams in the fields of boxing, golf, karate, taekwondo, table tennis, volleyball, baseball, hockey, squash, and cricket, exchange of sports training programs and officials and exchange of equipment and material pertaining to development of programs related to sports.
It is likely that the MoUs will be signed during President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to Islamabad next month.
