President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in Sri Lanka this morning after participating in the 15th Non-Aligned Summit, which concluded in Sharm El - Sheikh, Egypt last evening.

In addition his participation at the NAM Summit as the head of State of a founder member of the Non Aligned Movement, President Rajapaksa also had a very busy schedule of bi-lateral discussions with several Heads of State and Government.

In his address to the NAM Summit President Rajapaksa explained the new situation in Sri Lanka following the defeat of terrorism, and also expressed the need for NAM to play a new role in meeting the new challenge of the Global Financial & Economic Crises, as well give leadership to pragmatic approaches to major problems of Climate Change, Environmental Protection and Global Warming.

During his two day visit President Rajapaksa had meetings with eight national leaders and the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

T he national leaders with whom he had bi-lateral discussions were the President of Cuba Raul Castro, the outgoing Chair of NAM; Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Leader of Libya, Mr. Syed Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, Dato Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Mr. Madhav Kumar, Prime Minister of Nepal.