Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has announced that he would be a 'bridge' between India and China noting that Sri Lanka never posed a threat to the relationship it shared with India.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has announced that he would be a 'bridge' between India and China noting that Sri Lanka never posed a threat to the relationship it shared with India.
In an interview to Rediff.com the former President said the country needed to maintain good relations with both India and China. "Sri Lanka will never pose a threat to India, and we have nothing to gain by helping any other country to become a threat to India," he said.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, who lost the Sri Lankan Presidency earlier this year, plans to contest the parliamentary election and likely become Prime Minister. He spoke exclusively to Rediff.com contributor Nitin A Gokhale.
Rajapaksa further told Rediff.com, "Sri Lanka has always had close relations with China from the early 1950s onwards. India's concern about Sri Lanka's relations with China. is a new phenomenon which has come about in the past few years in the context of the rivalry between India and China as the world's rising superpowers in Asia. We need to maintain good relations with both India and China. Sri Lanka will never pose a threat to India, and we have nothing to gain by helping any other country to become a threat to India. In this context I wish to recall the role played by our late leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike who mediated between India and China in the Sino-Indian war of 1962.
My government was too absorbed with domestic issues such as the war against terrorism and development to play a role in international affairs like Mrs Bandaranaike. But the role that she played during the Sino-Indian war of 1962 has great relevance today. I intend doing what I can to be a bridge between these two rising superpowers".
Courtesy :Ceylon Today
