{"id":108069,"date":"2020-10-26T16:54:24","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108069"},"modified":"2020-10-26T16:54:24","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:54:24","slug":"arrival-of-mike-pompeo-the-us-secreatry-of-state-strive-to-strike-a-balance-in-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/26\/arrival-of-mike-pompeo-the-us-secreatry-of-state-strive-to-strike-a-balance-in-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"ARRIVAL OF MIKE POMPEO, THE US SECREATRY OF STATE -STRIVE TO STRIKE A BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>RANJITH SOYSA<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Sri\nLanka is getting ready to welcome and meet Mike Pompeo to discuss issues which\nare important to both countries and to reiterate their commitment to democracy\nand long friendship. Sri Lanka which is following a non-aligned foreign policy\nshould strive to uphold the spirit of neutrality as a small country located in\na geo-politically important and a sensitive area. It is a well known fact that\nthere are competing international forces attempting to establish their dictates\nin the Indian Ocean region to achieve their global agenda. Sri Lanka is not\ninterested in being a part of a global diplomacy and neither to align herself\nto global or regional powers. Sri Lanka has selected to be a friendly nation to\nall genuine friends and to be neutral in relation to power blocs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri\nLanka is presently attempting to overcome the issues concerning&nbsp; the COVID 19 after overcoming an armed\ninsurgence of a once powerful terrorist organization. The country also had a\nnarrow disastrous escape from&nbsp; the\nIslamic terrorism recently. Sri Lanka was able to survive protecting its\nterritorial integrity mainly due to its neutral foreign policy as she received\nhelp and assistance from many countries following different ideologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nvisit of Mike Pompeo has been interpreted by some commentators as a part of\nnormal American diplomacy and by some others as a&nbsp; test the waters for enhanced response from\nSri Lanka for US drive in the Indian ocean region. Some have expressed their\nviews as an effort is to follow up the MCC proposal and also&nbsp; ACSA and SOFA agreements with Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri\nLanka should be open and ready to discuss any issues with Mike Pompoe on the\nbasis of friendship BUT bearing in mind that STATE IS ONLY THE GURADIAN OF THE\nLAND AND NOT THE OWNER, the motto of&nbsp; the\nnoble, ancient kings of Sri Lanka. Guided by this golden rule the Government\nshould stick to the principles of upholding the sovereignty of the country\nwithout being pressurized to agree to any proposal which will create problems\ninternally and externally to Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like\nanother small country ,Bhutan, Sri Lanka should be able to function as a neutral\ncountry while preserving her identity in her discussions with the US Secretary\nof State. From Sri Lanka\u2019s point of view mutually beneficial areas of trade and\ninvestment should receive the attention while Sri Lanka should also touch on\nUNHRC \u2018s resolution based on faulty Darusman report and the USA \u2018s questionable\ninsistence on peddling the proposal at the Assembly. The US policy on our war\nwinning armed forces is another important issue which should be considered for\ndeliberations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two\nother crucial issues having a direct impact&nbsp;\non the region;&nbsp;&nbsp; the climate\nchange- the melting of the glaciers in Himalyan mountains, rising of the sea\nlevels ,limiting her carbon foot print&nbsp;\nand an effective program for the reduction of poverty in the Indian\nocean area deserve to be analysed and discussed&nbsp;\nat the meeting with the US, the world\u2019s richest nation.&nbsp; Sri Lanka should advocate a positive program\nwhich will benefit holistically, the country as well as the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RANJITH\nSOYSA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RANJITH SOYSA Sri Lanka is getting ready to welcome and meet Mike Pompeo to discuss issues which are important to both countries and to reiterate their commitment to democracy and long friendship. Sri Lanka which is following a non-aligned foreign policy should strive to uphold the spirit of neutrality as a small country located in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ranjith-soysa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}