First Japanese ministerial level visit since cancellation of LRT project

Sri Lanka believes the forthcoming Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi’s visit will help improve relations undermined due to the cancellation of the USD 1.5 bn Japanese-funded Light Rail Transit Project by the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government in October 2020.

There hadn’t been a single visit at ministerial level since then. The then Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera was here in late 2018 during the Yahapalana administration.

Sources said that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi would undertake a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka on the 28th and 29th of July. Sources said that the senior politician was expected to engage in detailed discussions on the ongoing debt restructuring process, which is co-chaired by the Japanese government, and several areas of bilateral cooperation, as a follow-up to the visit of President Ranil Wickramasinghe to Tokyo two months earlier.

President Wickremesinghe, several months ago, explained in Parliament how short-sighted policies caused irreparable damage to Sri Lanka-Japan relations.

Maintaining the momentum of the President’s visit to Japan, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Japan, Rodney Perera, engaged Hayashi pursuant to a personal invitation extended by the Japanese Foreign Minister to visit Akita Prefecture. In interactions held with the Minister, as well as senior officials of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Perera convinced the Japanese side of the importance of a high level visit from Japan to Sri Lanka in order to explore potential projects under the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) signed between the two countries several months ago, renewable energy, maritime cooperation and mutual efforts to heighten private sector tie ups as important areas under the growing bilateral agenda.

The Japanese Foreign Minister’s visit here, with a delegation of more than 20 members, is also the first high-level visit from a country outside the South Asian region since last year. It is expected to enhance the scope of relations between Sri Lanka and Japan.Discussions with the President and the Prime Minister and bilateral consultations with the Foreign Minister are scheduled to take place.