Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Azmi Thassim called on Prince Sultan Bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Chairman of the Saudi Space Commission, on 01 September 2019 week at his office.
In this cordial meeting Ambassador explained to Prince Sultan the recent achievements made by Sri Lanka in space technology including the recent launch of Raavana-1 micro satellite. He expressed Sri Lanka’s willingness on extending bilateral cooperation in space technology and underlined that this technological cooperation will be mutually beneficial for both countries.
Prince Sultan while affectionately recalling his close collaboration with late Sir. Arthur C. Clerk and his visit to the Kingdom in 1988, stated that Sir. Clerk remains among his mentors in space technology. He also mentioned that since the establishment of the Saudi Space Agency, the Kingdom’s focus is on developing potential in the field by collaborating with nations on space science, such as Sri Lanka.
The two sides agreed to explore the avenues to have collaborations while Prince Sultan expressed his wishes to send an expert technical team to Sri Lanka to further discuss on this subject with his counterparts.
Prince Sultan is the first Saudi Arabian national as well as the first Muslim to fly in space when he flew aboard of the American STS-51-G Discovery Space Shuttle mission in 1985.
Minister Counsellor, Madhuka Wickramarachchi, Second Secretary Fazil Farook and Desk Officer/ Bilateral Affairs, Abdul Latif Jabeer accompanied the Ambassador to the meeting.
