Sri Lanka’s Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the government is confident that India will support Sri Lanka against the US-sponsored resolution at the Human Rights Council in Geneva next month.
“Our position is that India is our greatest friend and closest neighbour and they have been extremely supportive in many issues and they have been a friend indeed. So we believe that stand,” he told reporters.
“Of course last time they had to opt out, they had given certain reasons, all this we discuss at a diplomatic level.
“From time to time international relations change for a variety of reasons. But we still believe they are our greatest friend and we have had that cordiality right throughout,”
The minister also said that Sri Lanka wasn’t concerned about the impact of a resolution on foreign direct investment (FDI).
“As far as FDI is concerned, I don’t think human rights are the reason because there are people investing in countries with wars. There are other reasons as well like infrastructure, which we are doing...
“So there are much bigger reasons or more concerns which have to be addressed. Human rights are part of it but it’s not the one and only reason.”
Rambukwella expressed the government’s belief that they could lobby enough votes to defeat the resolution.
“There is no guilty conscience... We are very confident. In the event that something happens, we feel it is an (US) agenda they are working on.
“And these agendas have been there, and we are very mindful of it. We are content with what we have been doing, and we shall continue to meet the challenge as it arises.”
