Sri Lanka donates five eye corneas to Pakistan

Islamabad: Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka, Aruni Wijewardane, on Tuesday presented a gift of five eye corneas for Pakistani patients to Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary.

Pakistan is the largest recipient of corneas from Sri Lanka, having received over 35,000 corneas over the years. This amounted to approximately 40% of Sri Lanka’s total cornea donations.

This tradition of generosity significantly impacted many lives, restoring both sight and hope to those who received these donations.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan and Sri Lanka decided to explore new opportunities for cooperation in the fields of agriculture, health, connectivity and culture.

An agreement to this effect was reached at the seventh round of bilateral political consultations held in Islamabad today between the two countries.

The Sri Lankan delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane while the Pakistan side was headed by Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi. The Consultations were held in a cordial and constructive atmosphere.

The two sides reviewed the entire range of bilateral relations. The discussions focused particularly on trade, economic cooperation, defence and security, education, parliamentary exchanges, culture, media, sports, cooperation at multilateral forums, and consular matters. The political and security dynamics in South Asia and its neighbouring regions were also discussed.

Both the sides expressed satisfaction over the positive trajectory of bilateral relations and reaffirmed the resolve to further strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation. It was agreed to enhance bilateral dialogue and exchanges and to strengthen the dialogue mechanisms.

They also noted with appreciation that Pakistan and Sri Lanka had unanimity of views on several global issues.