The US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that the United States had donated over US$ 6 million of COVID-19 assistance to Sri Lanka and thanked Sri Lanka for the hundreds of orders supplied for high quality Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which had saved American lives. At a joint media conference held at the Foreign Ministry in Colombo yesterday, Pompeo said that the US comes as a friend and a partner.

He said the US wants to take the partnership with Sri Lanka forward based on democratic values.

“A strong, sovereign Sri Lanka is a powerful and strategic partner for the United States on the world stage. It can be a beacon for a free and open Indo-Pacific. It is quite a contrast from what China seeks. We see, from bad deals, violations of sovereignty, and lawlessness on the land and sea that the China as a predator. And the US comes in a different way. We come as a friend and as a partner.”

Pompeo noted that Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike want a peaceful nation where human rights is respected. Adding that President Rajapaksa had stated that he is the President of all citizens and not of only those who voted for him, the US official said as the two nations move forward the US is counting on those words to hold true.

“We fully expect Sri Lanka would fulfil its pledges to take meaningful concrete steps to promote accountability, justice, and reconciliation.”

Responding to a query made by a journalist, Pompeo said that the US wants Sri Lanka to have sovereignty and independence, be successful, and have sustainable development and that the ‘US as a friend and partner offers just exactly that’.

“We have a shared vision, democratic nations always do…We know that these democracies have a shared vision for free and open shipping lanes that facilitate trade and allow people to travel wherever they want to go.

These are visions that the people of Sri Lanka share with the people of the United States,” he said, adding that his visit was to build on those relationships to find ways so that the American Private Sector would see the opportunities here and come and invest.”

He said the US and China have very different visions and the US wants to ensure that Sri Lanka has the capacity to exercise their sovereign rights and to have the freedom to hold the elections.

“Those are the visions that democracies work on together, those are the visions that we share.”