Sri Lankan FM: Recent crisis presents opportunity

Sri Lankan foreign minister Ali Sabri addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday evening, saying that his nation's recent political crisis presents an opportunity for reform. Sri Lanka's new government is committed to fiscal discipline and economic and institutional reform, he said.

Ali Sabri, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister said "Our institutions and society have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of very difficult circumstances. We unconditionally recognize the fact that one has the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which we all treat as sacrosanct. However, we also be appreciative that this freedom must be within the constitutional order and must be exercised having regard to one's fundamental duty to express oneself within the confines of the law." 

Sabri was a member of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa's cabinet, serving as a justice and then finance minister.