A Meeting that seeks to garner wide international political and economic support towards the Sri Lanka Peace Process will be hosted on April 14th by the U.S. Government, which has actively supported the international effort led by Norway, to facilitate the ongoing Peace Process. The meeting which will be held at the State Department in Washington D.C, will be co-chaired by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Sri Lanka's Minister for Economic Reform, Science and Technology Milinda Moragoda.

A precursor to the 'Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka' to be hosted by the Government of Japan, in June this year, the Washington meting will discuss the need for development and reconstruction assistance and how that can help consolidate the ceasefire and reinforce the peace process in Sri Lanka. Following opening remarks by Deputy Secretary Armitage, the program will include an update on the Sri Lanka peace negotiations that will be provided by Minister Moragoda and Norwegian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Vidar Helgesen, a Macro-Economic assessment of Sri Lanka by the IMF Deputy Managing Director S. Sugisaki and a summary of Sri Lanka's development needs by the World Bank and USAID. This will be followed by a presentation by Japanese Special Representative on Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi, which will look ahead to the Tokyo Conference.

Finance Ministers, Economic Development Ministers, Ambassadors and International Organization Officials are expected to attend this meeting. Representatives of the Governments of Germany, India, Japan, Norway and UK are among the countries that have already confirmed their participation. This will be the first occasion that the Government of India will be participating in a meeting concerning the current Sri Lanka peace process.

Embassy of Sri Lanka
Washington DC
USA

07 April 2003