On June 15, 2019 President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena met with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the 5th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which was held on June 14-15 in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan.

During the conversation, the two Heads of States "deliberated on important measures to curb extremism and ensure people's safety in Asia" as well as matters, concerning the interstate cooperation between Sri Lanka and the Russian Federation in various spheres.
As mentioned by the President's Media Division, President Sirisena and President Putin discussed sanctions threatened to be imposed on Sri Lanka with regard to goods sought to be imported from Russia, and talked about how to proceed in the future in this regard. Furthermore, President Sirisena extended an invitation to the Russian President to visit Sri Lanka in the near future.
The extensive discussion between H. E. Maithripala Sirisena and H. E. Vladimir Putin was referred to as productive, successful, and more importantly, extremely timely, considering the recent Easter Sunday bombings and expertise of Russia in counter-terrorism.
H. E. Maithripala Sirisena participated in the Summit, accompanied by the official delegation, including H. E. Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation, who facilitated the meeting between the two Heads of States together with Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the Foreign Policy Department and the Protocol Department of the Executive Office of the President of Russia.
The 5th CICA Summit was attended by 15 Heads of States, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon, as well as representatives of international organizations – the UN, the League of Arab States, the International Organization for Migration, the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-Speaking Countries.
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia. It is a forum based on the recognition that there is close link between peace, security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world. The key idea of the Conference is based on the priority of the indivisibility of security, joint initiative and mutually beneficial interaction of small and large states.
Sri Lanka joined CICA in 1018, bringing the number of member states to 27.