SYDNEY – – Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has sent a congratulatory message to Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on his re-election, following the peaceful parliamentary elections held on Monday.
Delivering the message the Austrian Foreign Minister also said that Australia was looking forward to work with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s government to further develop strong bilateral relationship and to address shared regional and global challenges.
The Foreign Minister’s message added: “Australia has a close and long-standing bilateral relationship with Sri Lanka. We are working closely with Sri Lanka to grow trade and investment and increase cooperation on security and transnational crime, particularly countering people smuggling.”
She also assured that Australia would continue to support Sri Lanka as it makes progress on national reconciliation.
According to latest reports from Sri Lanka, UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka at the Presidential Secretariat today.
He was elected for the fourth time as the Prime Minster in the 2015 Parliamentary Elections. He topped the UNP Colombo district list with 500,566 votes; the most number of preferential votes at a parliamentary election obtained by a candidate.
He served as Prime Minister for eight months when President Maithripala Sirisena appointed him following the victory of 2015 Presidential Election. Mr. Wickremesinghe had also served as Prime Minister from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994 and December 9, 2001 to April 9, 2004.
