Sri Lanka UK relations strong as Queen celebrates birthday

June 21, 2007 (LBO) – Relations between Sri Lanka and Britain remained strong with a shared history, cricket and economic ties binding the two nations, the British High Commission said on the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. "The more we see others in this way, the more we can understand them and their points of view. Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 81st birthday today.

"Relations between Sri Lanka and Britain, founded in our shared history, remain strong today. With up to 500,000 people of Sri Lankan origin living in the UK, the people to people links are close," the High Commission said in a statement.

"Many young Sri Lankans study in the UK. The highest spending tourist visitors to Sri Lanka are the British.

"The England cricket tour in the second half of this year and the arrival of their ˜Barmy Army’ supporters will be a festival of Sri Lankan-British sporting relations."

Queen Elizabeth has visited Sri Lanka twice.

First after her coronation in 1954, and later in 1981 after Sri Lanka became a republic. Sri Lanka was under British colonial rule until 1948.

The high commission said while she has witnessed the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth, she has worked har