The Opposition told Parliament on Friday that not one youth representative was included in the Sri Lankan delegation sent to the BIMSTEC Youth Summit 2025 in India — an allegation the Sports Minister answered by saying every member of the delegation was under 35.
MP Dayasiri Jayasekara made the claim while raising an oral question on Sri Lanka’s participation in the summit, the Daily Mirror reported.
Responding, Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage said Deputy Minister Eranga Gunasekara and MP Lasith Bashana Gamage were among the delegation’s members, and that all members were below 35 years of age.
The Minister said the Indian High Commission, which extended the invitation to Sri Lanka, had proposed that Deputy Minister Gunasekara lead the delegation.
The two sides are not describing the same thing
The exchange turns on what “youth” means for a youth summit, and the two answers do not meet.
The Opposition’s objection is about category: that the people sent were parliamentarians and office-holders rather than young people drawn from outside the political system. The Minister’s answer is about age: that no one sent was over 35.
Both propositions can be true at once. A delegation composed entirely of serving politicians under 35 would satisfy the Minister’s reply while leaving the Opposition’s complaint untouched. Nothing in the reporting records either side engaging with the other’s test, and no age threshold or selection criterion set by the summit’s organisers is given.
The Minister’s reference to the Indian High Commission proposing that a deputy minister lead the delegation is the nearest thing in the filing to an explanation of why office-holders were chosen. It is offered as to the leader of the delegation, not its composition.
A note on the date
The summit is reported as the BIMSTEC Youth Summit 2025, held in India. The news here is Friday’s parliamentary exchange, not the summit, which took place in the preceding year. Readers should not read the delegation’s travel as a current event.
BIMSTEC — the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation — groups Sri Lanka with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand. Sri Lanka has had an active year in the grouping: it hosted the BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility in Colombo, took part in the BIMSTEC maritime exercise with SLNS Gajabahu, and is due to host a meeting of BIMSTEC health ministers.
Not reported
The filing does not give the full composition or size of the delegation, the names of members other than the two the Minister identified, or the dates and location of the summit in India. It does not state the ages of the members, the criteria by which they were selected, or who made the selection.
It does not record whether Jayasekara responded to the Minister’s answer, whether any other member intervened, or whether the question was pressed further. It gives no account of what the delegation did at the summit or what it reported on its return, and no comment from the Ministry of Youth Affairs, which is not mentioned.
On sourcing. This is a single-source report. The Daily Mirror’s parliamentary reporters Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana are bylined on it. A search of the NewsFirst and Hiru News rails, Daily FT and the parliament.lk news feed found no other verified newsroom filing on this exchange; Ada Derana has blocked this desk on every route attempted. The allegation and the answer are both reported here as what was said in the House, not as findings.