Opposition leader, former President Mohamed Nasheed met with Rosy Senanayake- the mayor of neighboring Sri Lanka’s capital city, Colombo- on Tuesday.
The former president tweeted a photo with the first female mayor of Colombo on Tuesday afternoon, revealing that a meeting had taken place.
“Discussed long standing historical, commercial and cultural ties between the Maldives and Sri Lanka and the merits of a low carbon development strategy,” reads his tweet.
Nasheed also highlighted that Colombo city ‘now hosts the second largest population of Maldivians,’ with the first being Maldives’ capital, Malé City.
Privileged to meet @Rosy_Senanayake, Mayor of Colombo. Colombo now hosts the second largest population of Maldivians. Discussed long standing historical, commercial and cultural ties between the Maldives and Sri Lanka and the merits of a low carbon development strategy. pic.twitter.com/BOfHwRVFYc
— Mohamed Nasheed (@MohamedNasheed) May 22, 2018
Prior to her post as the Mayoress of Colombo, Senanayake was the Prime Minister's Spokesperson and the Deputy Head of the Prime Minister's Office for Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. She was also a former state minister for child development during President Maithripala Sirisena’s administration, and the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia from 2001 to 2004.
The former beauty queen is also a major opposition activist, and has been in the political arena since being recruited as a women’s coordinating secretary of the United National Party in 1995.
Nasheed, who was issued a 13-year jail sentence over terror charges in March 2015, has since been granted political asylum in the United Kingdom, but has been in Colombo more often, especially recently as his campaign for his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s primary is underway, ahead of this year's Presidential Elections.