The government representatives from the Asia-Pacific region, North America and Europe, meeting in Oslo on 25 November 2002, express strong support for the historic peace process now underway in Sri Lanka. The 22 countries plus the EU commit themselves to providing immediate financial assistance of 70 million US dollars in additional assistance to Sri Lanka. This amount does not include soft loans.

- We are very satisfied with the strong political support from this conference, and that it has led to immediate action regarding financial assistance, says Vidar Helgesen, Deputy Minister of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The declaration from the meeting stated:

We urge both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to exert further expeditious and systematic efforts, without recourse to violence, to resolve the hardcore political issues in order to achieve a lasting political settlement of decades of protracted conflict.

We urgently appeal to all the people of Sri Lanka, their political leaders and institutions to support a national consensus on the need for a final political settlement. To this end, we encourage the elected representatives of the people of Sri Lanka, on whom the ultimate responsibility for the country’s destiny falls, to address their challenging task with courage and vision.

For the peace process to succeed, popular support for peace must be sustained. Given the complexity of the issues to be resolved, the negotiations will face significant challenges along the way. International financial assistance is important for people to begin to see tangible benefits of peace in their daily lives.

The participants recognise that it is important that people across the whole of Sri Lanka enjoy benefits of peace. Building a national consensus for the difficult steps ahead in the peace process will require particular efforts to meet the humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable, such as the poor, the unemployed, especially in the rural areas, and women and children.

While all areas of Sri Lanka have been seriously affected by the war, the North and East has suffered the most extensive destruction. We commend the parties for establishing a joint Sub-Committee on Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs in the North and East and setting up a Fund with the aim of enhancing and prioritising donor activities in these war ravaged areas, which continue to experience severe social and economic hardships.

The Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have already taken resolute steps towards peace. They face many challenges in seeking a lasting political settlement, acceptable to all communities living in the island. We therefore pledge to support their efforts with financial assistance to the people of Sri Lanka and continued encouragement to the parties in their search for a lasting peace through a negotiated final resolution of the conflict.