2 February 2021 07:07 pm
The Government has turned Sri Lanka into a battlefield of global superpowers through ineffective handling of its Foreign Policy, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) said today.
SJB MP and Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella told a press conference that the government had prompted that situation with regard to handling of the Eastern Terminal issue.
“Eleven heads of state who had governed this country since independence including Late Prime Ministers- D. S. Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake and S. W. R. D Bandaranaike, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Late Presidents J. R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa and D. B. Wijetunga had maintained a balanced foreign policy.
"However, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the present government have failed to maintain it by involving China in Sri Lanka in a big way. This government and the previous government of Prime Minister Rajapaksa had borrowed extensively from China and had got it involved in Sri Lanka’s affairs. This has made Sri Lanka a battlefield of the Super powers,” Mr. Kiriella said.
He recalled that India had wanted Sri Lanka to implement the tri- party agreement which the Sri Lankan government got into in 2019. “This is despite the stance taken by the present Sri Lankan government to give the Western Terminal to India. The previous government only got into a deal to set up a company, only to manage the terminal. The terminal was always to be owned by the Sri Lankan government,” he said.
SJB General Secretary Ranjith Maduuma Bandara who came up with his party’s stand on the issue said handing over the Western Terminal to India did not make any difference. “The food you take goes into your mouth no matter whether you eat with your right hand or with the left,” he said. He said SJB trade union attached to SLPA will fight against selling of any terminal to a foreign company.(Yohan Perera)