Pathfinder ‘Study on Managing Foreign Policy and Relations with UN System’ handed over to President 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa received the ‘Study on Managing Foreign Policy and Relations with the UN System’ recently prepared by the Pathfinder Foundation on 22 January at the Presidential Secretariat.

The study carried out by the Pathfinder Foundation covered the dynamics of bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and its major foreign partners viz. India, China and the United States of America, based on Colombo’s support for China’s mega project the Belt and Road Initiative and the interest of the US and its allies in the ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’.

The other broad subject addressed in the Pathfinder study is the status of Sri Lanka’s relations with the United Nations system with special focus on the work of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council and Sri Lanka’s decision to support and cosponsor Res. 30/1 on the human rights situation in the country in 2015.

The study provides several options for the Government to take in consultation with the Human Rights Council, based on ground realities and in keeping with the constitution of the country.

In the process of preparing the study, the Pathfinder Foundation had the benefit and experience of retired senior personnel of the armed forces, and those who have had thorough knowledge on matters relating to the United Nations and the Human Rights Council and its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights. The Human Rights Council is due to meet next month in Geneva and the progress achieved by Sri Lanka will be scrutinised by the Council in 2021.

The Pathfinder study containing a series of recommendations was handed over to President Rajapaksa by the Chairman of the foundation, Bernard Goonetilleke. Assistant Secretary for the President (Foreign Relations) Admiral Jayanath Colombage also participated at the event.