{"id":114813,"date":"2021-06-02T16:12:48","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T23:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114813"},"modified":"2021-06-02T16:12:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T23:12:48","slug":"pathfinder-foundation-asia-society-policy-institute-report-on-sri-lanka-us-bilateral-relations-handed-over-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/06\/02\/pathfinder-foundation-asia-society-policy-institute-report-on-sri-lanka-us-bilateral-relations-handed-over-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa\/","title":{"rendered":"Pathfinder Foundation & Asia Society Policy Institute Report on Sri Lanka US Bilateral Relations Handed Over President Gotabaya Rajapaksa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pathfinder Foundation <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Pathfinder Foundation (PF) in collaboration with the\nWashington based Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) held a virtual meeting in\nJanuary, 2021 to pursue improved bilateral relations between the US and Sri\nLanka. The discussions broadly focused on economic and relations and with a\nbetter understanding of the ground situation of the US administration. The\nreport on the discussion presented by Mr. Bernard Goonathilaka to President\nGotabaya Rajapaksa at the President Secretariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objective of the initiative was to provide President Joe Biden\nadministration with a better understanding of the ground situation prevailing\nin Sri Lanka; challenges, opportunities and priorities that may impact on the\nUS \u2013 Sri Lanka bilateral relationship. The discussions broadly focused on\neconomic relations covering trade, investment, science and technology\ncooperation; strategic and security cooperation; and political and common\nvalues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan delegation was\nheaded by Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman-Pathfinder Foundation and former\nAmbassador to the U.S.  Other members included H.M.G.S.\nPalihakkara – Former Foreign Secretary, Ambassador & Permanent\nRepresentative to the U.N; Dr. Rohan Perera – Former Legal Advisor to the\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs &\u202fPRUN, New York; Prof. Rohan Gunaratne – S.\nRajaratnam School of Int. Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore;\nProf. Rohan Samarajiva – Chair, LIRNEasia & former Chairman of ICT;\n Dr. Indirajit Coomaraswamy –  Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri\nLanka, Distinguished Fellow – PF; Waruna Karunatilake – Former\nChairman,\u202fIndependent\u202fCommittee for Digitalization of Television in Sri Lanka\nand Senior journalist; and Chathuka Senanayake, Director, Lakshman Kadirgamar\nInstitute of International Relations and Strategic Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Amb.\nRobert O. Blake Jr., former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central\nAsian Affairs under the Obama Administration and Ambassador to Sri Lanka, the\nMaldives and Indonesia, headed the US delegation comprising former senior government\nofficials, representatives of civil society etc. The U.S. team included Alyssa Ayres –\nSenior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia, Council on\nForeign Relations, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia;\nNisha Biswal – President, U.S. India Business Council, Senior Vice President for\nSouth Asia, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, former Assistant Secretary of State for\nSouth and Central Asia;\nSajit Gandhi –\nSenior Professional Staff Member, House Committee on Foreign\nAffairs; Nilanthi Samaranayake –\nDirector, Strategy and Policy Analysis, Center for Naval Analysis;\nJohn Sifton – Asia Advocacy Director,  Human Rights Watch; Knox Thames –\nVisiting Expert, US Institute of Peace, Senior Fellow, Institute for Global\nEngagement and Alice Wells – International Government Relations Adviser,\nExxonMobil, former Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the dialogue, each team\nproduced a report comprising vital areas of the relationship and made\nrecommendations to further develop bilateral relations. Mr. Bernard\nGoonathilaka, Chairman, PF in picture the event of the report handed over to\nthe President at the President Secretariat on 02nd<\/sup> June 2021 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pathfinder Foundation The Pathfinder Foundation (PF) in collaboration with the Washington based Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) held a virtual meeting in January, 2021 to pursue improved bilateral relations between the US and Sri Lanka. The discussions broadly focused on economic and relations and with a better understanding of the ground situation of the US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114813","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=114813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}