US Secretary of State John Kerry said that there are “still real challenges” in Sri Lanka and called on the newly led government to begin addressing issues such as human rights immediately.

Speaking at a press conference at the Vibrant Gujarat summit in India yesterday, Kerry told reporters,

“We offered very immediately to engage in a dialogue to begin to work at guaranteeing that the problems with respect to human rights, the problems with inclusivity, challenges with respect to governance, are going to be addressed.”

“We will engage in that conversation from this moment forward, and hope that we can now forge a different outcome in Sri Lanka."

Kerry said that he had talked to the newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, adding "we are very hopeful that, in the days ahead, we can make some progress on all fronts.”

The US Secretary of State  also commented on Sri Lanka's former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa leaving office, saying the US had “expressed our belief that the transfer of power took place in the way that we had hoped it would.”

Kerry told reporters “I talked to the prior president, to his predecessor, only days ago about the importance of maintaining a peaceful process, no matter what.”

See his full remarks here.

Also see our earlier posts:

Ensure peaceful and inclusive election Kerry tells Rajapaksa ahead of polls (08 Jan 2015)

Look forward to working with Sirisena for 'inclusive, democratic' SL says Kerry (09 Jan 2015)