Sri Lanka’s Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development Bimal Rathnayake has broadened the country’s transport diplomacy at the International Transport and Logistics Forum in St. Petersburg, holding bilateral talks with his counterparts from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
A Memorandum of Understanding on Training and Capacity Building in the transport sector was signed with Russian Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin, facilitating professional exchanges and providing opportunities for Sri Lankan officials to receive training at the Russian University of Transport. The discussions also covered potential Russian involvement in infrastructure and urban mobility projects, technical collaboration and the continued operation of Aeroflot flights to Colombo to sustain tourism and trade links.
In a separate meeting with Kazakhstan’s Minister of Transport Nurlan Sauranbayev, both sides agreed to expedite the signing of an Air Services Agreement aimed at boosting tourism and trade between the two countries. Rathnayake also held talks with Belarusian counterpart Alexei Lyakhnovich to advance direct flight connectivity and wider cooperation.
The St. Petersburg engagements build on the April 6 Russia transport MoU signed at the same forum and mark a deliberate widening of Sri Lanka’s transport partnerships into the Eurasian bloc. Belarus and Kazakhstan are both members of the Eurasian Economic Union and have limited existing bilateral connectivity with Colombo.
The government has framed the outreach as part of its broader transport modernisation drive, which spans infrastructure, aviation, urban mobility and skills development. Minister Rathnayake emphasised that strengthening institutional links with Russia and its regional partners is intended to support long-term capacity building rather than one-off investment deals.
