Won’t act against India’s interests, says Rajapaksa

NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka does not want to do anything which will jeopardize the security of India or, act against the concerns of India in any way, newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said.

In an interview, Rajapaksa said the island nation and India should put behind them the misunderstandings of the past and move ahead. At the same time, he said his country is a neutral one and does not want to get involved in world power rivalries.

On the Easter Day terror attacks in Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa said the only way to tackle terror is to be very conscious of it. “We were very good at countering terrorism wreaked by the LTTE because over the years, our intelligence agencies knew their whole background, history,

We have always said that the Indian Ocean must be a zone of peace. We will do whatever we can to keep it that way. GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA

modus operandi, their leaders... whereabouts. Unfortunately, this Islamist terrorism is a new threat for us, so we have to develop the capacity and the capability to tackle it,” he said.