Minister Samaraweera in his address said that after gaining Independence in 1948, Sri Lanka carried forth its engagement with the world and took pride in the pursuit of a foreign policy based on “friendship towards all and enmity towards none.
"Sri Lanka has contributed consistently to the United Nations system in numerous capacities, taking a lead in norm setting processes including the Law of the Sea Conference, disarmament and human rights and continues to this day to contribute to peacekeeping operations.
"It was therefore uncharacteristic for Sri Lanka to have shifted away from this traditional foreign policy for some years in what is best described as an aberration. Sri Lanka now seeks to renew its engagement with the world community. Just before my departure to London on Saturday evening, I signed a letter inviting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Sri Lanka.
"Having stressed the importance of discontinuing the previous Government’s adversarial policies in international relations throughout his election campaign, President Sirisena did not forget to give due recognition to Sri Lanka’s relations with the world community even in his brief remarks following his oath taking ceremony on the evening of 9th January", the Minister said.
The aim of the Government, he said, " is to build the widest friendships internationally that recognises and respects our individuality as a nation. It remains our policy to extend friendship to all nations.
"The Government of President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, therefore, pursue a policy of renewed engagement with the international community. We look at the world as an opportunity and not as a threat. We will embrace the world so as to get the best the world can offer for the betterment of the Sri Lankan people. Ours will be a pragmatic foreign policy not based on ideology but on the needs of our people.
"In implementing its 100 Day Programme as promised, and efforts to renew its engagement with the world, the Government requires the support, partnership and understanding of the international community. It is our fervent hope in this regard that the United States will be a pivot in our effort to revive Sri Lanka’s relations with the western hemisphere and as expressed by the Assistant Secretary of State during her visit to Sri Lanka recently, that “Sri Lanka can count on the United States to be a partner and a friend in the way forward, whether it is on rebuilding the economy, preventing corruption and advancing good governance, ensuring human rights and democratic participation for all citizens.”
Finally the Minister Mangala Samaraweera urged them " tell our story to those who might be able to derive something meaningful from it; to those who would gain inspiration from it, especially those who may be in what might seem like irreversible states of despair – with either authoritarianism or civil strife, conditions which we believed not so long ago that we would have been destined to have perennially repeated in our country. Tell our story to those who may have lost faith in democracy and the power of the ballot. They must not lose heart".
