Key commends Ranil on ‘tremendous’ work for peace and reconciliation

Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key says that Sri Lanka has gone ahead “tremendously” under the leadership of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the last 12 months. 

“It’s obvious for everyone to see how successful Sri Lanka is becoming,” he said during the opening session of the Executive Committee meeting of the International Democrat Union (IDU) held in Colombo.

John Key, who is the Chairman of the IDU, said that his Sri Lankan counterpart Wickremesinghe has done tremendous work around peace and reconciliation. “We know these are challenging issues.”

“We also acknowledge at a personal level that you have been a longstanding supporter of the IDU,” he said, referring to the Sri Lankan PM. 

Wickremesinghe, who is the Chairman of the Asia Pacific Democrat Union (APDU) and one of the vice-presidents of IDU, also spoke during the opening session. The United National Party (UNP) is the host of the IDU’s Executive Committee meeting in Sri Lanka. 

“The previous decade did more damage to us that whatever shortcomings we had in the previous period,” he said. “And this is for a nation which is used to the South Asian style of politics.”