Relationship dossier
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
Relationship assessment
Practical assistance and goodwill coexist with New Zealand's human-rights concerns about Sri Lanka.
New Zealand toward Sri Lanka
+10New Zealand has provided development and disaster-recovery assistance to Sri Lanka, including support following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. New Zealand has also raised human-rights concerns about Sri Lanka in international forums.
Sri Lanka toward New Zealand
+5The Sri Lankan government expressed solidarity with New Zealand after the 2019 Christchurch attacks, a concrete but limited gesture of goodwill.
Overall relationship
+10The relationship includes practical New Zealand assistance to Sri Lanka and an instance of Sri Lankan government solidarity after a major attack in New Zealand. New Zealand's criticism of Sri Lanka's human-rights record is a recurring political counterweight to those cooperative elements.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
New Zealand has provided development and disaster-recovery assistance to Sri Lanka, including support following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. New Zealand has also raised human-rights concerns about Sri Lanka, including in international forums. Sri Lankan government expressions of solidarity after the 2019 Christchurch attacks are a concrete but limited example of bilateral goodwill. The relationship combines practical assistance with occasional political disagreement.
Areas of tension
- New Zealand's concerns about human rights and accountability in Sri Lanka, including in international forums.
Key developments
New Zealand provided assistance to Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The Sri Lankan government expressed solidarity with New Zealand after the Christchurch attacks.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and continuity of New Zealand's development cooperation with Sri Lanka are unclear.
- The extent of Sri Lankan government cooperation with New Zealand beyond public expressions of solidarity is unclear.
- The effects of New Zealand's human-rights concerns on bilateral government cooperation are unclear.