Sri Lankan prez arrives on maiden visit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 28

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who scored a resounding victory in the recent presidential poll, arrived here today on his first foreign visit at a time when the change in government has put Colombo’s recent foreign policy initiatives in a state of flux.

At his swearing in, Gotabaya had spelt out the basic tenets of his government’s foreign policy that stressed on a neutral relationship with all countries and avoid getting embroiled in the struggle for domination underway in Asia-Pacific.

“Our administration will maintain friendly relations with all countries. We don’t want to get involved in power struggles among powerful nations. We want to remain neutral in our foreign relations and stay out of conflicts among the world powers. We request all nations to respect the unitary nature and sovereignty of the country,” he had said while taking the oath in Anuradhapura, the site of several pitched battles between Sinhala armies and invading forces from south India.

Gotabaya’s visit to India was decided when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar landed in Colombo immediately after the swearing-in ceremony and extended PM Modi’s invitation to pencil-in India as his first foreign destination after taking over as President.

India has said it is looking forward to working closely with the new Sri Lankan government and hoped it would be able to fulfil aspirations of the Tamil community in that country. The US expects the new dispensation to “uphold Sri Lanka’s commitments to security sector reform, accountability, respect for human rights and non-recurrence of violence”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also reminded Gotabaya of the “unfinished business” of Status of Forces Agreement, which would allow free access of US military forces to the island nation.