During a briefing held with the diplomatic community on the progress of the operations carried out by the military forces to strengthen security, President Maithripala Sirisena has stated that the situation is now almost 99 percent assured.

The President has expressed his gratitude to the international community for the cooperation and assistance provided to Sri Lanka at this time of need and urged them to continue to provide economic assistance and lift the adverse travel advisories issued to tourists, the President’s Media Division (PMD) stated.

Addressing Ambassadors and High Commissioners of United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, United States, Germany, Australia and EU, at the President’s Official Residence in Colombo today (27), the President has said that a large number of the terrorists and suspects have been arrested so far while massive quantities of explosives and weapons were seized.

Speaking on the successful operations carried out by the security forces and intelligence services, President Sirisena has thanked the envoys for the intelligence expertise and cooperation provided by those countries, the PMD said.

President Sirisena has emphasized that current successful operations and the assistance of foreign expertise on intelligence could eliminate the threat of terrorism.

In order to ensure non-recurrence of such terror attacks in the future, new regulations are being enacted and new security institutions will be set up under the restructuring of security services, the President has said.

The envoys of foreign countries and the representatives of international agencies have unanimously assured maximum support to President Sirisena to curb terrorism in Sri Lanka. They have stated that the information provided is useful to evaluate the situation and assured that the travel advice would be reviewed as soon as possible.

Responding to the questions raised by the envoys on the extension of the emergency, President Sirisena has emphasized the necessity to extend the emergency for another month because of the ongoing operations conducted by the security forces. He has expressed confidence that the emergency could be lifted at the end of one month period, the PMD further said.

Secretary to the President Udaya R Seneviratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ravinatha Ariyasinghe and Additional Secretary Esala Weerakoon were also present at this discussion.