U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Sri Lanka on May 2 and 3. In February, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had visited the U.S. and held discussions with his American counterpart.
Mr. Kerry’s visit will be the first official one for a Secretary of State since that of William Pierce Rogers.
Calling the proposed visit “symbolic,” former diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka hoped that Mr. Kerry would use the opportunity to correct the observation he made when Mr. Samaraweera was in the U.S.
He recalled how Mr. Kerry’s observation — that Sri Lanka had been at “war with Tamils” for 30 years — had created a controversy as the war was not with the Tamils but with militants.
