14th December, 2011
[10.29 a.m.]
ගරු ආර්. සම්පන්දන් මහතා
(மாண்புமிகு ஆர். சம்பந்தன்)
(The Hon. R. Sampanthan)
Mr. Chairman. I am happy to partake in this Discussion on the Ministry of External Affairs.
A country’s external policy, Sir, must be in the national interest. I think that is fundamental. It is inevitable that a country’s external policies will be a reflection of its internal policies or its domestic policies in a multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural and pluralistic society such as Sri Lanka is. If a country’s domestic policies are fundamentally flawed, it is inevitable that its foreign policy will be skewed, distorted and consequently based upon expediency rather than on a mature well thought out foreign policy. That would be, Sir, the theme of my speech today.
