Sri Lanka: Senate report urges warmer ties

Despite ongoing concern about the country's human-rights situation, the United States should seek a more positive relationship with strife-torn Sri Lanka, primarily for geopolitical reasons, according to a new report released here Monday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The 18-page report, which was released on the eve of a two-day visit to the island by Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Robert Blake, calls for a "more multifaceted U.S. strategy" that would use the resumption of military aid, among other tools, to gain influence in Colombo and halt its "strategic drift" toward China. "The United States cannot afford to 'lose' Sri Lanka," the report, which was authored by two Committee staffers who traveled to the island last month, concluded. "This does not mean changing the relationship overnight or ignoring the real concerns about Sri Lanka's political and humanitarian record." "It does mean, however, considering a new approach that increases U.S. leverage vis-à-vis Sri Lanka by expanding the number of tools at our disposal," it concluded.