US ‘eager to build partnership with Sri Lanka’ says Secretary of State

by Thusiyan
Feb 6, 2019
<p>The US Secretary of State said his government “remains eager” to grow ties with Sri Lanka, as he praised the island in a message released earlier this week.</p> <p>Marking Sri Lanka’s Independence Day Mike Pompeo said “Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions and constitutional processes have ensured your country’s continued advancement”.</p> <p>The United States remains eager to build on our partnership with Sri Lanka and advance shared interests in the Indo-Pacific region based on our common democratic values,” he said. “We look forward to working together to further deepen ties between our nations, promote shared prosperity, and secure a stable and peaceful future.”</p> <p>His statement, just weeks before Sri Lanka is due to be discussed at the UN Human Rights Council, comes as Colombo continues to refuse to deal with accountability for violations of international law committed by the military. Whilst Sri Lankan committed to a UN resolution mandating an accountability mechanism with international judges, no steps have been taken to set up such a process, leading to widespread calls to refer the case to the International Criminal Court.</p> <p>The United States though has in recent years stepped up its engagement to Sri Lanka, with closer political and military ties.</p>

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button