According to Inside Toronto, John Tory, Toronto Mayor is to return from Sri Lanka after a two-day stop on his latest municipal trade mission aimed at learning about the place his city’s large Tamil community is from.

At the Jaffna Public Library on March 19, Tory signed a partnership agreement with C.V. Wigneswaran, chief minister of Northern Province, as well as the Jaffna Municipal Council, on “good governance, education, library and economic development.”

The library once had one of the largest collections of books in Asia, but was burned by a mob in 1981 during the decades-long civil war on the island, and is still rebuilding.

Tory’s office said books the mayor brought for a donation to the library all relate to Toronto, and were shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards.

The mayor’s office said Tory was in Sri Lanka “to learn more about where the Tamil community is from, why they left Sri Lanka, post-war developments, economic opportunities and to visit places of importance for the Tamil community.”