| Bogollagama
off to China just to open a consulate
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama is scheduled to leave for China
today to ceremonially open the Sri Lanka Consulate in Shanghai.
The Minister’s visit will conclude on December 21.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during his State visit to China, announced
that a Consulate would be set up in Shanghai in order to enhance
the economic ties between the two countries. The two countries have
maintained a healthy relationship.
The
Consulate is scheduled to be open tomorrow.
The
opening of the consulate however has been marred with reports that
the move is yet another blunder made by foreign minister Bogollagama.
The reports allege that public funds have been wasting in setting
up the consulate. The reports further add that the new Consular
General is a relative of the Bandaranaike family and is inexperienced.
The Minister’s actions have received strong objections from
senior Foreign Ministry officials. According to Foreign Ministry
officials, the former Sri Lankan Ambassador in Beijing, Nihal Rodrigo,
strongly made recommendations to the Foreign Secretary against the
establishment of a consulate office in Shanghai because it would
be an utter waste of public funds.Rodrigo was the former Foreign
Ministry Secretary and was the most senior and most experienced
serving career ambassador in the Foreign Service at that time. Rodrigo
was also former SAARC Sectary General.
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