Political witch-hunts through questionable motives against member states need to be halted: President tells UN

Addressing the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) today, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stressed that in order to ensure the sustainability and the credibility of the Organization, political witch hunts through questionable motives against Member States, need to be halted.

“Democratically elected governments of nations understand the pulse and needs of their people the best. It is the responsibility of the UN to assist and support processes of such elected Governments to bring about sustainable solutions for the needs of their people,” he said while noting that the UN system needs to ensure equity, inclusivity and transparency, while being more responsive to the ever-changing global environment.

The annual session of the General Assembly commenced at the UN Headquarters in New York at 9.00 pm in Sri Lanka Time yesterday  using video conferencing technology.

This year’s General Session will be held under the theme of “The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism”. President Rajapaksa joined the Session around 4.45am local time through a pre- recorded speech.

Sri Lanka is committed to follow a neutral foreign policy with no affiliations to any particular country or power bloc, President reiterated.
Emphasizing that Sri Lanka remains deeply committed to addressing drug-related socio-economic issues, the President pointed out the need to enhance efforts to strengthen the prevention of drug abuse among children and youth, and ensure that educational settings are free of any harmful and addictive drugs.

“Sri Lanka is extremely concerned about the increasing sophistication of the transnational criminal groups engaged in illicit manufacture and trafficking of drugs,” he said.

In order to address this, a Presidential Task Force was appointed to eradicate the drug menace, and to create a safer and a more secure country.  Since its establishment, it has produced commendable results.