The President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived in Paris on Wednesday, 21 June 2023 at the invitation of the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron to address the World Leader’s Summit for a New Global Financing Pact on 22 to 23 June. The summit endeavours to garner cross-regional consensus among the international community to build a more inclusive, a more equitable international financial architecture with strong deliverables.
President Wickremesinghe will speak at the Summit on Sri Lanka’s experience as a middle-income country and the challenges faced in dealing with international financial institutes with a severe economic crisis. Sri Lanka’s experience is considered to be of particular relevance to the outcome of the Summit, especially in the context of the country’s recent success in debt discussions with the IMF and in progressing on the path to economic stability and recovery.
The other leaders of the round table speaking under this particular theme are President of Tunisia Kaïs Saied, Prime Minister of Rwanda Edouard Ngirente, Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, and the former President of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby.
Heads of State and Heads of Government of countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America are scheduled to participate in the summit, in addition to heads of international organizations, multilateral financial institutions and other key stakeholders. The French President Emmanuel Macron, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of Brazil Lula da Silva, the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, and the President of Kenya William Ruto are among the world leaders scheduled to speak at the summit.
President Wickremesinghe is also due to meet several Heads of Government and Heads of Multilateral Institutions on the side-lines of the Summit to discuss issues of relevance. The President and the First Lady Prof. Maithree Wickremesinghe will also attend an official dinner hosted by President Macron for Heads of State and Government participating in the Summit, at the Elysee on 22 June. The First Lady Wickremesinghe is also scheduled to participate in an event hosted by the First Lady of the French Republic Brigitte Macron on 23 of June 2023.
