AKD’s India visit: ‘JVP will not compromise Lanka’s security and economic interets’

By Saman Indrajith

The JVP yesterday said it would never do anything detrimental to Sri Lanka’s economic and national security interests.Responding to criticism that the JVP leaders’ recent visit to India threatened the country’s national interests, JVP Propaganda Secretary MP Vijitha Herath, who accompanied the party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said: “We never have betrayed people’s trust and would never do so.”

Addressing the media at the party head office Herath said: “We as a party are concerned of geopolitical trends and vow that we won’t let our foreign relations place our country’s security and economic development in danger.”

Herath said people knew that the JVP had sacrificed the lives of many of its cadres to ensure the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. “We never have betrayed people’s trust and would never do so.”.

Asked what they had discussed with the Indian Government, Herath said their talks had been mostly on regional security issues. “We explained to India that our position was to safeguard Sri Lanka’s sovereignty while guaranteeing regional security. We would not do anything that upset our regional security. In any of these talks, India never asked us to stop our relations with China, yet we assured that none of our actions would do any harm to regional security,” Herath said.General Secretary of the NPP Dr Nihal Abeysinghe also addressed the press.