Norwegian Foreign Minister to visit Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2000, 16:17 GMT]
Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek is set to visit Sri Lanka on February 16. He will arrive in the capital Colombo early on the 16th morning and leave late the same night, Ingvard Havnen, spokesman for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry told TamilNet.

Vollebaek will meet President Chandrika Kumaratunge, his Sri Lankan counterpart, Lakshman Kadirgamar, and the leader of the Opposition Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe. He will not meet any representatives of the Tamil political parties in Colombo, Havnen said.

Norway has been engaged in peace process for a long time, conducting meetings with representatives of both the Government and the Liberation Tigers. However, Havnen did not wish to elaborate on the details of the meetings.

"The possibility of Norway assisting discussions to take place between the Sri Lankan government and the (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) LTTE aimed at resolving the ethnic problem, is also to be discussed," said a statement released by the foreign ministry.

Havnen did admit that Vollebak is visiting Sri Lanka on the invitation of the Sri Lankan Government.

He was supposed to have gone last month, but his visit had to be postponed as Lakshman Kadirgamar was unable to meet him.