President Rajapaksa visits South Korea; Sri Lanka Coast Guard took part in a sea exercise; The first ever bilateral consultations between the Ministry of External Affairs of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel held;
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    • Reports noted that President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a four-day official visit to Korea from April 23 – 27, 2012 on an invitation extended by the South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak. 1 Agreement for the Cooperation in the area of Informatization; for Economic Development Cooperation Fund to provide USD 200 million for the development activities in Sri Lanka; and for an Electric Power Partnership were signed between Sri Lanka and South Korea at the Blue House, the official residence of the Korean President in Seoul following bilateral talks between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-Bak.2

    Reports noted that the Sri Lanka Coast Guard took part in a sea exercise jointly conducted by Indian, Sri Lankan and Maldivian Coast Guards in the seas off Male from April 23 till April 27. 3 Meanwhile, the first ever bilateral consultations between the Ministry of External Affairs of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel were held at the Ministry of External Affairs in Colombo on 20th April, 2012.4

    According to reports, the Sri Lanka Army strongly denied a media report that said unexploded cluster munitions have been found in North. The Army noted that the military had not used cluster bombs and that cluster munitions have not been found in the North as reported by a foreign news agency quoting an UN official and called for evidence on the report that has claimed cluster munitions have been found.5

    In another development, according to reports, the recently released results of the 2012 Change Readiness Index have ranked Sri Lanka at the 22nd place among 60 developing and emerging world economies and first among South Asian countries. The survey conducted by the KPMG International, in collaboration with researchers from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has assessed the level of change readiness across 60 countries with a focus on developing and emerging markets. India has ranked 23th place, Bangladesh at 45th place, Nepal at 50th, and Pakistan at 54th place.6

    In other developments, reports noted that the government of India has taken action to initiate a programme to rehabilitate war widows in the Eastern Province.7

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