Colombo: Srilanka will adopt an “India first approach” as its new foreign police plank and protect New Delhi’s strategic security interests, the country’s Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage has said as he sought to allay concerns amid China’s growing presence in the Island nation.

Admiral Colombage became the first ever Foreign Secretary from a military background when he was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to hold the Foreign Ministry on August 14^th. In an interview published by Daily Mirror on Wednesday Colombage said Srilanka is to adopt an India first approach as its new regional Foreign Policy plank.

That means Srilanka will not do anything harmful to India’s strategic security interests, said Colombage. He was the Chief of the Srilanka Navy between 2012-14 and later became a Foreign Policy analysist mostly on the Chinese initiates in Srilanka and the immediate region. Colombage said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would have an India first approach as the key to strategic security.

Lanka cannot afford and will not afford any country to use it as a staging area to do anything against another country-especially India, he said.