No conditions attached to GSP: UNP

21 January 2017 10:10 am Views - 4023

Sri Lanka's 2500-year-old Buddhist culture is non-negotiable for whatever reasons, even if it were to gain the GSP+ or any other benefit, two United National Party ( UNP) back-benches said yesterday.

These views were expressed by UNP MPs Harshana Rajakaruna and Wijepala Hettiarachchi at a media briefing last morning.

They said legalizing homosexuality or any other step which diluted Sri Lanka's rich culture would never happen.

Mr Rajakaruna said the division of the country was also out of the question and that the government had not agreed to any condition that would lead to the division of the country.

He said the real situation with regard to GSP+ is that there were no conditions involved in re-gaining it. “The European Union had only requested that Sri Lanka ratify and implement 27 international conventions, to which the successive governments had agreed to in the past,” he sad.(Yohan Perera)