MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. Sri Lanka supports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to form a global front against terrorism, the country’s Ambassador to Russia Dayan Jayatilleka said in an interview with TASS.
"Everyone can benefit from the initiative that Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward at the UN General Assembly in 2015. He said we needed to establish a truly global, united front to combat terrorism," he emphasized.
According to Jayatilleka, the April terrorist attacks became some kind of a lesson for the country and the entire world. "A terrorist’s wife blew herself up though she was pregnant, killing not only herself but also her two sons," he said. "It is a lesson for Sri Lanka and the entire world. If someone is ready to kill themselves, they can be expected to do anything at all, commit any crime against morality," the ambassador said.
He pointed out that such things "can happen anytime, anywhere, if we only give them [terrorists] a chance to act." "Sri Lanka has faced a problem, a threat to its existence but it has experience of resistance," Jayatilleka added.
He also spoke out against forming military blocs. "As for military pressure, it will take the world back to the colonial era but we are living in the 21st century," the ambassador noted. "In the past, military methods were used to put pressure on economically emerging countries. Such practices are completely unacceptable, they damage the idea of peaceful co-existence," he stressed.
"There is a project such as ASEAN, which focuses on Asian countries. This project is more worthy of respect than the so-called Indo-Pacific project aimed at restraining China and even the Greater Eurasia by creating military unions between countries," Sri Lanka’s ambassador said, adding that "military unions will not help resolve the issue of terrorism.".