President Ranil Wickremesinghe met with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal of Nepal on Tuesday (Sept. 19) in New York on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly.

During the meeting, the Sri Lankan leader stated that the island nation is keen on expanding its longstanding relationship with Nepal into a dynamic political, trade and business partnership by diversifying the areas of cooperation, according to the President’s Media Division (PMD).

He mentioned that the inaugural session of the Sri Lanka-Nepal Joint Commission, scheduled to be held at the end of the year in Kathmandu this year, would be an important step.

The Nepalese prime minister stated that there is a close understanding and cooperation between the two countries and expressed confidence that this will be further strengthened in the coming years. The people of Nepal and Sri Lanka have many commonalities, particularly in religion and culture, he added.

Both sides looked forward to enhancing connectivity between Sri Lanka and Nepal and explored avenues for interconnecting the tourism sectors of the two countries.

The two leaders have agreed that there is potential to increase economic cooperation between the two countries by increasing trade and investment as well as enhancing people-to-people contact through the provision of education opportunities. Further strengthening cooperation in the multilateral fora was also discussed.

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, Mohan Pieris Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in New York and senior officials from Sri Lanka and Nepal also attended the meeting.