Sri Lanka Acts on Principle, Not Pressure : President

COLOMBO (News 1st); President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the State carries an unwavering responsibility to protect the country’s seas, the State itself, and its people, emphasising that these duties remain the government’s foremost priority.

He said all decisions are taken prioritising the people and the motherland, not by responding to external noises or pressures. “Whatever outcries or pressures may exist outside, we are not shaken by any of it,” he stated, underscoring that Sri Lanka’s position is rooted in safeguarding its neutrality and upholding its humanitarian principles.

The President stressed that no citizen should die as a result of an unending war. As a State, he said Sri Lanka’s approach is to treat every human life with equal value. “It is with that expectation that we are making these decisions. Accordingly, we have begun the process of rescuing them,” he added.

He urged all parties involved in the ongoing conflict to commit themselves to peace, saying the world urgently needs such commitment at this moment. “People are dying. We are facing the threat of a massive economic storm. Several vulnerable social situations have arisen as a result of this conflict. The world today needs immediate peace,” he said.

Sri Lanka, he affirmed, will support every step taken toward global peace. He said this is the basis on which the current course of action was initiated.

The President insisted that the government’s intervention with regard to the Iranin Navy Ships, has been guided solely by the need to protect the country’s reputation and dignity, safeguard human lives, and demonstrate Sri Lanka’s commitment to international conventions.

“I believe this intervention is the decisive and humanitarian course of action a State must take at a moment like this,” he said, adding that these steps have now been launched.