Mahinda Rajapakse leaves to Iran to accept G-15 chairmanship

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 May 2010, 15:11 GMT]
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to leave Colombo on Sunday to attend the forthcoming G-15 Summit to be held in Tehran on Monday. He is to take over the Chairmanship of the G-15 from the incumbent chairman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, according to Colombo External Affairs Ministry.

The G-15 membership comprises 17 developing countries namely Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

The Group was established during the 9th Non Aligned Summit in Belgrade in September 1989 and its objective is to promote greater and mutually beneficial cooperation among developing countries.

Minister of External Affairs G. L. Peiris, President’s Secretary Mr. Lalith Weeratunga and other senior officials will accompany Rajapakse, sources said.