Colombo: Brazil has decided to reopen its mission in Sri Lanka, which was handled for the past 40 years by its embassy in New Delhi, in view of the growing bilateral ties.

Till now the Brazilian Embassy in India was looking after the affairs in Sri Lanka, a foreign ministry official said. The official said though Lanka had its mission in Brasilia for over five years, Brazil has decided to reopen its embassy in Colombo after nearly four decades. The Brazilian Government had originally set up an embassy in Sri Lanka in the early sixties, but it was closed in 1969.

In recognition of the growing relations between the two countries, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on the advice of the Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, decided to re-establish its mission here, an official statement said. The new Brazilian ambassador to Lanka, Pedro Henrique Lopes Borio, is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka at the end of January 2008, it said.

An interim office for the newly established Brazilian Embassy in Colombo has been set up at a leading hotel here. The official flag raising ceremony for the new office took place on Tuesday last, attended by Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, T V Maduwegedera, Brazilian Charge dAffaires, Antonio Cottas de Jesus Freitas and former Sri Lankan ambassadors to Brasilia, General Shantha Kottegoda, and General Rohan Daluwatte.

Source : PTI