{"id":203221,"date":"2019-07-08T00:06:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T18:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=203221"},"modified":"2019-07-27T23:45:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T18:15:21","slug":"pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/","title":{"rendered":"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prime Minister\u2019s office in a letter to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) has told there is \u2018no SOFA between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Government of the USA\u2019. This is contradictory to what the U.S. Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz<\/span><\/strong><\/a> said earlier last week when she called SOFA<\/span><\/strong><\/a> the VFA and acknowledged negotiations are underway \u2018to facilitate cooperation\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and U.S. Ambassador Teplitz<\/p><\/div>\n

Writing to CCC Chairman Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya concerning his letter to the PM, asking for increased transparency with regard to agreements with the U.S.A. to which includes the SOFA and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the PM\u2019s office informed them that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/strong><\/a> was \u2018perturbed\u2019 by the ignorance on the contents of SOFA and MCC.<\/p>\n

Referring to the queries forwarded by the CCC on SOFA, Prime Minister says there is no SOFA between the U.S and Sri Lankan governments and adds no such proposal has been forwarded by the line Ministry – the Defense Ministry – on such a matter.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times in their political column however reported today that the line Minister- the Defense Ministry – is not being kept in the loop regarding developments on the SOFA and that it is only being done now after the President demanded for approvals to be run through him.<\/p>\n

According to the ST column, until then the Foreign Ministry was exclusively handling the negotiations, although the discussions should have rightfully taken place with the Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n

So the Prime Minister\u2019s office is technically correct in saying SOFA has not been discussed by the Defense Ministry yet – either in an honest admission of the lack of information or a blatant attempt at misleading the audiences yet again.<\/p>\n

The PM\u2019s office may not be aware of the negotiations but the U.S. Ambassador told the public early last week that negotiations are on and gave the same old reassurance of how the agreement will not affect the sovereignty of Sri Lanka although all information currently points otherwise.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at an event yesterday, President Sirisena pledged he would not sign any foreign agreement that brings harmful impacts – in a clear reference to SOFA. Last week the State Minister of Defense too told media that any defense agreement will be signed only upon consultation with the President and that no agreement will go through without his signature – a clear development and an improvement since last week, when Sirisena as the Defense Minister was completely left in the dark.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":203224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nPM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-07T18:36:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-27T18:15:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"629\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"461\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/\",\"name\":\"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-07T18:36:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-27T18:15:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg\",\"width\":629,\"height\":461,\"caption\":\"Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and U.S. Ambassador Teplitz\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2019-07-07T18:36:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-27T18:15:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":629,"height":461,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/","name":"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg","datePublished":"2019-07-07T18:36:04+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-27T18:15:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg","width":629,"height":461,"caption":"Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and U.S. Ambassador Teplitz"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/pms-office-says-no-sofa-but-u-s-ambassador-says-there-negotiations-on\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PM\u2019s Office Says \u2018No SOFA\u2019 But U.S Ambassador Says There Negotiations On"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ranil-meets-Ambassador-Teplitz.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203661,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203221\/revisions\/203661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}