On the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister of Kingdom of Bahrain, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, will be on an official visit to Sri Lanka from 28-30 July 2009. The visiting Prime Minister of Bahrain will hold bilateral talks with the President. The talks will cover a wide range of issues including expanding economic cooperation between the two countries.

This is the first high level visit to Sri Lanka from Bahrain after a gap of 33 years. The late Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, the Amir of the Kingdom of Bahrain, visited Sri Lanka for the Non Aligned Summit Conference in 1976.

The Bahrain –Sri Lanka diplomatic relations, formalized in 1992, continued to expand into practical cooperation on labour matters as well as on matters of mutual interest in regional and international forums. It is expected that the high level visit will further enrich and expand Sri Lanka’s friendly relations with the Kingdom of Bahrain.