Sri Lanka successfully maintains neutrality in foreign relations - Ali Sabry
09-Dec-2023Sri Lanka has won the respect of its international partners for maintaining neutrality in practising foreign policy and this helped the country in striking a much-needed bailout package with the IMF
Sri Lanka has won the respect of its international partners for maintaining neutrality in practising foreign policy and this helped the country in striking a much-needed bailout package with the IMF, the island nation’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told Parliament on Thursday (Dec 7).
Sri Lanka had succeeded in pursuing a policy of “friendship to all and enmity to none”, Sabry said.
“The challenge we faced was that we should not be drawn into any particular camp and seen as an extension of any particular country or any region or a particular alliance,” the minister said, without naming any country.
Sabry said President Ranil Wickremesinghe was able to communicate with many world leaders to articulate Sri Lanka’s vision.
“He visited India, he visited China, he visited Japan twice, he visited Germany, France, and went to the UN.” “I think because we have done that without getting entangled into any pro-country strategy and standing together as an independent sovereign state we have got the respect Sri Lanka richly deserves,” Sabry said.
