Member of Parliament W.D.J Seneviratne was elected as the new President of the Sri Lanka-Indonesia Parliamentary Friendship Association recently at the revival meeting of the association for the ninth Parliament. The meeting was held under the patronage of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Sri Lanka Gusti Ngurah Ardiyasa and Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake. At this meeting, Member of Parliament Dr. Suren Raghavan was elected as the new Secretary of the Association and Members of Parliament Mohomad Muzammil, Aravindh Kumar and Imthiaz Bakeer Marker were elected as Vice Presidents. In addition, MP Marjan Faleel was elected as the Treasurer and MP (Mrs.) Muditha Prishanthi de Zoysa was elected as the Assistant Secretary. The Speaker said that there are a number of bilateral agreements between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, further strengthening the cooperation between the two countries. “Paving the way to further strengthening collaboration between our two countries, Sri Lanka entered into several bilateral agreements and MoUs with Indonesia which cover wider range of areas such as Economic and Technical Cooperation, Promotion and Protection of Investments, Higher Education, Research and Technology, Visa Exemption, Cultural Cooperation, Marine and Fisheries Cooperation, and Combating International Terrorism” speaker said. “The historic ties between Sri Lanka and Indonesia date back to many centuries. Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations with Indonesia shortly after it gained independence. The initial representation was at the level of a consulate and Mr. A. E. Gunasinghe, the father of the Labour Movement of Sri Lanka served as the first ambassador to Indonesia” Mr. Abeywardena further said. Several Ministers, State Ministers and Parliamentarians were present at the meeting.