Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Vietnam talks before students of USSH

Sri Lanka is geographically located almost at the center of the Indian Ocean, with a seabed of 1,340 km long, and has interactions with and countries and continents around this region such as India to the North, Africa to the West and Southeast Asian countries to the East. This country's geographical position has turned it into an intersection of economic, commercial, cultural, and religious activities in the past and present between the East and the West. Its political regime is multiparty parliamentary democracy, influenced by the UK as well as its neighbor India.

In order to harmonize relations with many countries around the Indian Ocean, including major powers, Sri Lanka has maintained a relatively neutral, politically unaffiliated foreign policy during the Cold War to this day. Its foreign policy consists of three pillars: national sovereignty, national security, and economic development; among which economic development is supported by economic diplomacy, including the mobilization of capital from international financial in the form of assistance development.

However, in the process of implementing the aforementioned outward-looking economic policy, Sri Lanka has faced many challenges, in which the balance of relations between India, China and the West is the biggest one. The Sri Lanka's government skillfully maneuver itself between the relations to gain economic interests and reduce conflicts. As with the Non-Aligned Movement states, it is important that Sri Lanka balance all interactions and avoid falling into a spiral of competition among great powers.

Towards Vietnam, Sri Lanka maintains traditional and friendly relations given that the two countries have just celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations (July 21, 1971). Over the past 50 years, the two countries have witnessed 53 high-level visits between their leaders. Trade turnover of the two countries in the year reached nearly 301 million USD and the two strive in the future to raise the number to 1 billion USD. Currently, Sri Lanka has 14 investment projects in Vietnam, mainly in the textile and garment sector and Sri Lanka companies create about 9,000 jobs for the Vietnamese. In the coming time, Sri Lanka hopes to promote educational and cultural cooperation with Vietnam. Ambassador Walpita Gamage emphasized the role of the young generation in bilateral relations between the two countries.