Sri Lankan Minister Lambasts Trudeau for ‘Outrageous Allegations’ Against India

Amid stressed diplomatic ties between India and Canada, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Ali Sabry lashed out at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his remarks against India, adding that Trudeau makes “outrageous allegations without any proof”.

During an exclusive interview with an Indian news agency, Sabry said that he is “not surprised” by Trudeau’s remarks as he keeps making “outrageous and unsubstantiated allegations”.

“Some of the terrorists have found safe haven in Canada. The Canadian PM has this way of just coming out with some outrageous allegations without any supporting proof. They did the same thing for Sri Lanka, a terrible, total lie saying that Sri Lanka had a genocide. Everybody knows there was no genocide in our country,” the Sri Lankan minister said.

Rebuking Trudeau, Sabry said that remarks about a Sri Lankan “genocide” put an immense strain on relations between the two countries.

Suggesting that Trudeau desist from interfering in what doesn't concern him, the Sri Lankan foreign minister said that no one should poke their nose into other countries' business and tell them how they should run their own government.

“We love our country more than anyone else. That's why we are in our country... We have to look after our region. We need to work together. That's how we can create a peaceful environment. We should not be dictated to by anyone else about how we should conduct our affairs,” he said.

In May, Trudeau announced that the Canadian Parliament has designated 18 May as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day - a statement that was vehemently refuted by Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry that said this is a “politically motivated statement for domestic political consumption”.

In his interview, Sabry also said that Sri Lanka is eager to strengthen ties with India in several sectors including electricity, renewable energy, tourism and port shipping connectivity.

“It is a big economy. India is growing and that growth path is very important. Together with that, the region must grow,” he said, adding that Sri Lanka has identified big opportunities in India.

Sabry emphasised that his country was keen for its part of the world to be peaceful and prosperous with, above all, thriving neighbours such as India had proved itself to be.

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to India, Asoka Milinda Moragoda, added his voice to the support expressed for India over its diplomatic fracas with Canada.

Addressing a press conference, Moragoda said: “I think India's response has firm and direct. And I think as far as we are concerned, we support India on that. Having said that, in my lifetime - I'm almost 60 years old - for 40 years of my life we have faced various forms of terrorism in Sri Lanka. I have lost many friends and colleagues to terrorism.”

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