Rohitha Bogollagama, Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, arrived in Riyadh on Saturday for a short visit to the Kingdom and meetings with Saudi officials including Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior and Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Foreign Minister. During his meeting with Prince Naif, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister expressed thanks for the care and attention enjoyed by the Sri Lankan community in the Kingdom. Prince Saud and Bogollagama discussed a number of issues of mutual interests and ways to enhance bilateral relations between Riyadh and Colombo. Bogollagama also met Saudi officials tasked with infrastructure development including building of roads, houses, schools, hospitals, electrification etc. in northern Sri Lanka for internally displaced people (IDP). The island nation's north has not seen any development for the past 30 years due to the subjugation and autocratic dominance of the LTTE. Bogollagama said the government is giving top priority to developing these areas. He also requested the Saudi government to invest in bonds of Sri-Lanka. Recently President Mahindra Rajapaksa stressed that as members of the international community, friends of Sri Lanka need to pressurize the LTTE to lay down arms and surrender. He urged the international community to bring pressure on the leadership of the LTTE to free the civilians who are being held against their will as human shields.
