Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende will visit Sri Lanka this week in a bid to re-establish political contact, AFP said citing Brende's office.

Ths visit comes almost 10 years after Oslo failed in a bid to mediate in the island’s civil war.

Borge Brende’s visit, which begins Thursday, will be the first by a Norwegian minister to Sri Lanka since 2006, the Norwegian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The aim of the visit to Colombo is to re-establish political contact with Sri Lanka,” Brende said, adding: “The recent political developments in the country in the past year have made this possible.”

In the early 2000s, Norway mediated between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but a 2002 ceasefire didn’t last.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was in power from 2005 to 2015, had questioned Norway’s neutrality and quashed the guerrilla in 2009 during a major military offensive that brought an end to 37 years of fighting.

During his visit, Brende is scheduled to meet with President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the opposition leader R. Sampanthan.

(With inputs from AFP)