Less than a week after the European Union was at the forefront of passing a resolution at the UNHRC calling for accountability, than Sri Lanka's spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Tuesday that the government had decided to close embassies in Europe that were not serving any purpose, opening up new embassies in Asia instead.
The spokesperson said,
"President Mahinda Rajapaksa has discussed the issue with the government and it will now be decided exactly which embassy in which country in Europe will be closed."
"The government has limited resources so it is difficult to maintain embassies in every single country. So the government feels it will be more productive to have embassies in countries where we can gain something."
Whilst the spokesperson told Xinhua the government's decision was not in response to the EU's stance at the UNHRC, he quoted the minister for external affairs, G.L. Peiris as saying that since almost all the Asian countries, except India, had voted in favour of Sri Lanka, it would be helpful for Sri Lanka in future to strengthen ties with Asia.
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