page_title: Ranil Wickremesinghe
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Ranil Wickremesinghe / Political career / Third premiership (2015–2019) / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sits with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Temple Trees complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on May 2, 2015, after meetings with President Maithripala Sirisena and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]
context_page_description: Ranil Wickremesinghe is a Sri Lankan politician who has served as Leader of the United National Party since 12 November 1994. He was first elected Member of Parliament for Biyagama in 1977, having been re-elected till 2020 and had served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on three occasions.
  Wickremesinghe also previously served as Prime Minister from 1993 to 1994 and 2001 to 2004. He was appointed party leader in November 1994 following the assassination of Gamini Dissanayake during the campaign for the 1994 presidential election. On 8 January 2015, Wickremesinghe was appointed as prime minister by President Maithripala Sirisena, who had defeated President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election.
  Wickremesinghe's coalition alliance, the United National Front for Good Governance, won the 2015 parliamentary election with 106 seats. Although it fell short of an outright majority, Wickremesinghe was re-elected as Prime Minister with over 35 Sri Lanka Freedom Party members joining his cabinet.
context_section_description: His foreign policy was aimed at re-balancing relations with India and the West that were strained during the previous regime and keeping good relations with China as well. He also chose to restart discussions to solve the Indo-Sri Lanka fishing dispute but strongly defended the Sri Lankan navy's right to shoot Indian fishermen that fish in Sri Lankan waters, stating:
  If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. If he gets killed... Law allows me to do that.
  — Ranil Wickremesinghe, interview with Thanthi TV
  His foreign policy was seen as moving away from the Rajapaksa government's isolationist policies, which distanced Sri Lanka from the western world. His policies were seen to attract investments and financial aid.
  His government allowed a 99-year lease of a port to a Chinese company which caused protests in 2017.
  He also worked to develop relations with Japan and Singapore, choosing them as his second and third foreign state visits after being elected as prime minister. During his visit to Japan, he promised to support Japan's bid to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council and entered to a "comprehensive partnership" with Japan covering political, economic and security issues
  . During his visit to Singapore, in an interview with The Straits Times he invited Singaporean submarines and frigates to visit Sri Lanka.
caption: Prime Minister Wickremasinghe with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
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