Kathmandu: The Nepal Council of World Affairs last week invited a very distinguished Sri Lankan diplomat at its premises for a lecture on “‘The Role of the UN in present day”.
Ambassador Dr. Vernon L.B.Mendis is considered to be one of the pillars of the Sri Lankan Foreign Service who worked there since its very inception in 1949.
Ambassador Vernon talking on the topic opined that the biggest contribution of the UN system to the world has been the emergence of democratic systems in the globe and of the governance as well.
“It was the spirit of the UN which made it possible that scores of countries came out of the clutches of colonial powers and gained independence in the truest sense of the term.
“In effect, after the UN system came into being the decolonization process started vigorously.
Achieving global peace and security; furtherance of the economic and social development in the world and the future of governance in the world were the three main objectives of the UN system which it apparently has achieved in the past decades.
In all, Dr. Mendis had all the praise for the UN and the role it is at the moment playing for “peace-keeping” in the world.
Dr. Mendis, however, to a query of the Telegraph weekly said that the UN system in essence became helpless so far as the lifting up of the continued sanctions on Iraq after the Gulf war was concerned.
President of the NCWA, Ambassador Keshav Jha and GS of the Council introduced the Sri Lankan celebrity.
Apart from the presence of Nepali scholars at the lecture program, Ms. Pamela J. Deen, the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the Nepali court also graced the occasion.