New Sri Lanka govt ends US lobbying contracts

February 21, 2015 21:20

In a sign of improving relations with the US, Sri Lanka has terminated lobbying contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars a month that the previous government had signed to help it win friends in Washington amid war crimes allegations, the nation's ambassador says.

The investment in lobbyists to foster political and economic ties had gathered steam last summer, in the dying months of the administration of then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but with little apparent benefit, as Sri Lanka's international isolation deepened over its refusal to credibly probe civilian deaths during the civil war that ended 2009.

But political change inside Sri Lanka itself has done the trick. There has been a turn-around in the US relationship after new President Maithripala Sirisena won January 8 elections and promised democratic reforms and accountability for human rights violations.

Sirisena was elected in large part because of public dismay over the rising cost of living on the South Asian island, where the monthly per capita GDP is about $540 (Rs 33,582).

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