Sri Lanka doesn’t want to get caught between escalating US-China tensions: President

Ranil Wickremesinghe - PIC BY NIMALSIRI EDIRISINGHE

• Stresses need for SL to adhere to core principles of Bandung Conference and Panchsheel

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam 

As the rivalry between the United States and China is becoming more intense and countries are being compelled to take sides, Sri Lanka has decided it would not get tangled in the tensions, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said. 
Wickremesinghe last evening asserted that the island nation would not succumb to the pressures of taking sides and focus would be only on ensuring the ASEAN is further strengthened in the coming decades. 
“We are now being asked to choose sides. Asia was never divided.
According to Wickremesinghe, if Sri Lanka can adhere to these principles, then the island nation can work with all the counties in the Indo-Pacific, ASEAN and BRI, to ensure stability is maintained. 
“We should carry out the concept of which there is bipartisan agreement to ensure that Sri Lanka stays out of and opposes any attempt to bifurcate Asia and we go along to ensure peace and stability inour region.”