Ministry News

Minister G.L. Peiris with Sri Lanka’s Ambassadors in France, Germany and Italy, the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and  the  Consul in Frankfurt.

At the Sri Lankan Embassy in Rome, External Affairs Minister Professor G.L. Peiris met with several of the country’s Ambassadors in the region for a comprehensive review of their work.

The envoys attending the discussion were Professor Karunaratne Hangawatte, Ambassador in France, Mr. Karunatilake Amunugama, Ambassador in Germany, Mr. Ravinatha P. Aryasinha, Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and Mr. Nawalage Bennet Cooray, Ambassador in Italy. Mr. Pradip Jayewardene, Sri Lanka’s Consul in Frankfurt, also participated in the meeting. 

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As a part of the introductory visits to SAARC Member States, the new Secretary General of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Arjun B. Thapa, is currently visiting Sri Lanka.

During his stay in Sri Lanka, the Secretary General paid a courtesy call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 11^th August in Kandy and held discussions with the Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Mrs. Kshenuka Senewiratne on 12^th August at the Ministry in Colombo.

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The Ministry of External Affairs regrets the comments made to the media by the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navanethem Pillay, relating to the investigation on Sri Lanka that has been undertaken by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) following the adoption by a vote of Resolution 25/1 in March 2014. In an e-mail interview to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, High Commissioner Pillay states that “the United Nations can conduct an effective investigation into reports of war crimes in Sri Lanka without visiting the country.”

The High Commissioner who is scheduled to leave office at the end of this month making public pronouncements to the media on an investigation which has commenced only recently is a clear indication of personal bias. It is evidence of an attempt to influence the investigation process and make it follow a preconceived trajectory. She refers in her statement to a “wealth of information outside Sri Lanka”. This is the same wealth of information that she has tended to refer to in the past, justifying it to be from credible sources, although their origins continue to remain undisclosed, and verification has not been facilitated. In fact the High Commissioner has desisted from acknowledging verifiable statistics of UN sources. Instead, she has sought to endorse exaggerated claims of former UN sources of spurious credentials by including such uncorroborated statistics in UN documentation. Utterances of this nature from an Officer who is expected to maintain the highest standards of objectivity is disappointing. 

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In a comprehensive briefing for Ambassadors and High Commissioners accredited to Sri Lanka at the Ministry of External Affairs, last Thursday (7^th August) Professor G.L. Peiris dealt with several current developments.

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Minister of External Affairs, Prof. G. L. Peiris held bilateral discussions with Mr Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China on the sidelines of the 21st ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Nay P ...

The Ministry of External Affairs takes serious note of the Security Message for US Citizens issued by the United States Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security on 8^th August 2014, which regrettably creates a false and alarmist view of the conditions prevalent in Sri Lanka.

The right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest are important values in a democracy, and the public in Sri Lanka have the liberty to exercise these rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution of the country. However, there have been no instances of violent protests targeting the US Embassy, its diplomats, officials or citizens, though claimed by the US State Department’s Security Message, that such incidents could occur.

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Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday that there was significant potential for trade between Pakistan and Sri Lanka particularly after the Free Trade Agreement 2005 became operational. The Prime Minis ...