President Gotabaya Rajapaksa meets Japanese Foreign Minister

Colombo (News 1st): President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that Sri Lanka does not intend to get caught up in the power struggle among world powers. The President made this statement today (December 13) when he met the Foreign Minister of Japan. Focusing on cooperation the Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi had highlighted Japan's commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region. He said that security and stability would be key areas in regional cooperation. The President speaking to the Foreign Minister had said that the Indian Ocean region should be maintained as a peaceful region free from conflict. The President also pointed out that he will stand for peace among communities, stability, and reconciliation. President Rajapaksa pointed out that the reconciliation process should move forward from politics and focus on economic development, development of infrastructure facilities and especially developing the standard of living of the people in the North and East. It is pertinent to note that our exclusive ocean region has been lingually erased and renamed, to be part of a wider 'Indo-Pacific Ocean', over the past few years. This is not dissimilar to what the British did in haphazardly dividing India and Pakistan to provide Freedom at Midnight, the repercussions of which are still being experienced across the region. Sri Lanka's Exclusive Economic Zone is nearly nine times its landmass, and therefore should be called the Sri Lankan Sea or the Sea of Lanka. This ocean region comes within the exclusive purview and control of Sri Lanka, within the peripheries of international law. It is time, global superpowers respected Sri Lanka's right to what is legally and geographically our own. It is also important for global superpowers, to abandon plans to force Sri Lanka into 'One Country, Two Systems' arrangements, like what exists in Hong Kong as an example. And this is why we congratulate HE the President on taking this stance.