{"id":1652,"date":"2026-07-12T14:54:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/?p=1652"},"modified":"2026-07-12T14:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:24:50","slug":"president-akd-postpones-france-visit-to-year-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/?p=1652","title":{"rendered":"President AKD  postpones France visit to year end..!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>P<\/strong><\/span>resident Anura Kumara Dissanayake&#8217;s scheduled official visit to France later this month has been postponed until the end of the year due to domestic compulsions, including the fallout from the Negombo prison violence, the Sunday Times reported.<\/p>\n<p>French authorities have been informed of the postponement, and a new date later this year has been requested, Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath said. ExecutiveBranch<\/p>\n<p>The invitation for President Dissanayake to visit France had been extended by French President Emmanuel Macron when the two met on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi in February.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-552 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/anura-kumara-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Among the issues the President had planned to discuss was France&#8217;s support for the extension of the GSP Plus preferential trade facility, with Sri Lanka required to make a fresh application for GSP+ tariff benefits next year, as the current scheme is due to expire on 31st December.<\/p>\n<p>The GSP+ facility grants eligible developing countries preferential access to the EU market, though continued access depends on the effective implementation of 27 international conventions covering human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and good governance.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Herath said the government planned to sign three MOUs with France relating to economic and financial ties as well as defence sector cooperation during the President&#8217;s visit.<\/p>\n<p>He said the contents of the MOUs needed to be finalised before the visit takes place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Anura Kumara Dissanayake&#8217;s scheduled official visit to France later this month has been postponed until the end of the year due to domestic compulsions, including the fallout from the Negombo prison violence, the Sunday Times reported. French authorities have been informed of the postponement, and a new date later this year has been requested, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local","category-breaking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1652"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1654,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions\/1654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}