(MENAFN- Colombo Gazette) By Easwaran Rutnam in Adelaide
The New Zealand High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Michael Appleton is to be appointed as Senior Foreign Affairs Adviser to New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs (and Deputy Prime Minister) Winston Peters.
Appleton will return to New Zealand next month after completing his term in Sri Lanka.
“I arrived in Sri Lanka with my wife Nayan and son Samraj in June 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was still preoccupying this country and indeed the world. That now feels like a very long time ago. Because so much has happened to, and in, Sri Lanka (and indeed the New Zealand-Sri Lanka relationship) in the two and a half years since,” he said in a greeting for the season sent out to several people.
Michael Appleton said it will always be a highlight of his diplomatic life, and one of his greatest honours as a Government official, to have served as New Zealand's first resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
“It has been an enormous privilege to lead New Zealand's first diplomatic team based in Colombo, and to help take our bilateral relations to the next level. New Zealand and Sri Lanka have so many interests and values in common, as small island nations buffeted by strong geostrategic forces largely beyond our control and seeking to ensure prosperity for our peoples through our long-standing systems of democratic government. While our beautiful islands sit at different, far edges of the Indo-Pacific over ten thousand kilometres apart – Sri Lanka in the west and New Zealand in the east – we have a shared interest in an open and free region in which all countries, big and small, can have their say,” he added.
The High Commissioner said that there are many issues on which New Zealand and Sri Lanka have been able to enhance cooperation over the last few years.
“From agriculture to migration, from public financial management to state sector reform, from social cohesion to inclusive democratic governance, from nutrition to shared security challenges, and from sport to our diaspora. I am confident that this cooperation will only continue to build in the years ahead,” he said.
He also noted that Sri Lankans' responses to the economic crisis – drawing on deep reservoirs of resilience; seeking change through peaceful protest; contemplating various reforms to strengthen your economy and political system; and undertaking vigorous, open debates about the best path forward – have been heartening to observe.
Michael Appleton also noted that in the year ahead Sri Lankans will – as they have for their entire history as an independent nation – choose how their country should take its next steps via participating in open, competitive elections. (Colombo Gazette)
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