Question: Please provide a readout of Assistant Secretary Blake’s recent travel to Sri Lanka and India.
Answer: Assistant Secretary Blake had productive meetings in Sri Lanka with President Rajapaksa, Foreign Minister Peiris, and other government officials to discuss ways the Government of Sri Lanka can further integrate the people of the north back into the political and economic life of the island while also completing the important work of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in determining the facts surrounding the end of the civil war in 2009. Assistant Secretary Blake also visited Jaffna to see first-hand the conditions of the people there.
In India, Assistant Secretary Blake met with senior Indian officials to review the full spectrum of bilateral engagements. He also addressed a gathering of State Department entry level professionals from across the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.
