Lanka forged close ties with Asian countries

LAKSHMI De Silva

Though Sri Lanka is a small country, it has friendly relations with almost all countries especially in the Asian region and enjoy good relations with them dating back to centuries. Sri Lanka never was a lackey of the West, Mass Media and Information and Foreign Investment Promotion Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa told a press conference at the Ministry Auditorium yesterday.

He said Sri Lanka had ties with Libya in 1976 and the Libyan President Quadafi visited the NAM conference in Sri Lanka at that time.

Sri Lanka had friendly ties with China for a long period, long before other countries had ties with her.

Even with Iran and Iraq we had good relations while having friendly ties with India, Pakistan and other Asian countries where Theravada Buddhism flourishes. Burma was one such country from where Amarapura and Ramannya Nikayas were brought to Sri Lanka, Minister Yapa said. The Minister said the Government would take action to protect Tamil civilians and provide education, health and other essential services.

The Government will also hold elections in Vavuniya and Jaffna and had invited all major political parties to take part in the elections. The UPFA invites all parties to join with them since the EPDP had already coalesced with the main UPFA, he said. The LTTE was totally defeated and it is an organisation is now history. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama had taken action to extradite K. Pathmanathan, who was a known international arms procurement agent.