Japan has expressed willingness to support the development of Sri Lanka’s fisheries and agriculture sectors, NewsFirst reported, after Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar met Japan’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on the sidelines of the Island States Ocean Summit in Tokyo.
The Sri Lankan delegation also held discussions with senior officials of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and met representatives of Japan’s fisheries research and academic institutions, NewsFirst said. No specific funding figures or programme commitments were announced.
The Island States Ocean Summit — “Sustainable Ocean Action for Resilient Islands” — runs in Tokyo from 3-4 June 2026 and brings together heads of state and high-level representatives of island states alongside technical and financial partners. The summit builds on the outcome of the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference and contributes to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Nippon Foundation, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO are jointly hosting the summit.
The Chandrasekar–Tokyo engagement adds to a sustained Japan–Sri Lanka fisheries thread that began in late May, when Japan’s FAO programme launched freshwater fisheries projects in the Eastern Province and followed up with a Cyclone Ditwah-linked fisheries package on May 31. Tokyo had earlier hosted Sri Lankan ICT firms at Japan IT Week.
Source: NewsFirst.
