Sri Lanka drifts closer to the East
By Ameen Izzadeen
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka, which is under tremendous pressure from the West to put
its human-rights record on track over the humanitarian crisis that emerged
during the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is turning to
the East, in particular the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a grouping
that represents half the global population.
With uncertainty hanging over a US$2 billion standby facility that Sri Lanka is
negotiating with the International Monetary Fund, apparently over Colombo's
failure to meet Western demands in areas of human rights, media freedom and
good governance, Sri Lanka has been getting much of its financial, military and
development aid from Asian and Middle Eastern countries.
China, Japan, India, Iran, Libya and the Gulf countries have offered
hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and grants to Sri Lanka, helping the
Mahinda Rajapaksa government not only to successfully wage war on the LTTE, but
also sustain its economy in the face of the global financial meltdown. The
trend to look towards the East began in 2006 when the United States stopped
military aid to Sri Lanka in the wake of renewed hostilities between government
forces and the LTTE.
Had Rajapaksa remained beholden to the West, Sri Lanka, perhaps, would not have
won its war against terror. Western aid came to Sri Lanka with strings. But
there are no such strings attached to the aid from the East. This explains why
Sri Lanka had no hesitation in joining the SCO as a dialogue partner.
This status was granted at the SCO's two-day summit this week in Yekaterinburg
in Russia. In a joint statement the SCO members welcomed the end of "internal
armed conflict" in Sri Lanka and expressed hope that "on the foundation of the
sovereignty of the state, territorial integrity and guaranteed rights of all
the ethnic and religious groups a lasting peace, security and stability would
be restored in the country".
Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said Sri Lanka sees the SCO
emerging as a major economic and political grouping. So it is natural for Sri
Lanka, a country strategically situated in the Asian region, to be working with
the SCO. The SCO's core members are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
"[The] economic reasons are overwhelming," Kohona said, explaining Sri Lanka's
decision to tap the SCO. "China, a key SCO member, is emerging as the
second-biggest economy in the world. Other SCO countries such as Russia and
Kazakhstan are rich in oil and mineral resources. It is natural for Sri Lanka
to reach out proactively to these countries and benefit from the relationship,"
the foreign secretary said.
Apart from the economic reasons, Sri Lanka believes that in the area of
combating terror, it could benefit from the SCO, which has set up a Regional
Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) - headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan - to
combat the triple threats of terrorism, extremism and separatism.
"Sri Lanka has waged a long struggle against terrorism. For us, any
international grouping that has a focus on terrorism provides an opportunity.
We are encouraged by the anti-terrorist goals of the SCO. This is also a fact
that made us to seek a relationship with the SCO. We are also very much
concerned that some SCO members also suffer from terrorism," Kohona said.
But does this mean Sri Lanka will continue to look to the East, instead of the
West, which had doled out billions of dollars in aid to Sri Lanka?
W M Karunadasa, senior professor in international relations at Colombo
University, said that Sri Lanka's foreign policy has been neither pro-West nor
pro-East; it has been always pro-Sri Lankan. He says the economics policies of
the governments during the Cold War period might have led some to label Sri
Lanka's foreign policy as pro-West or pro-East.
"When the United National Party was in power it followed a somewhat liberal
economic policy and the country was seen as pro-West. When the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party [the party of President Rajapaksa] was in power, it adopted a
mixed economic policy, prompting many analysts to label the country as
left-oriented. But Sri Lanka always had a foreign policy that served its own
interests," the professor said.
Kohona says Sri Lanka's link up with the SCO should not be seen as anti-West.
"We have always cultivated friends across the spectrum. We have a history of
proactive non-alignment. Being a country that has always played an active role
in the world arena, we will continue to foster our relations with all
countries. However, we will always be conscious of the need to protect our
sovereignty, integrity and our dignity," the foreign secretary said.
He was echoing a policy statement spelt out by Rajapaksa on June 3 at a victory
celebration in Colombo. The president said it was necessary to begin a new era
in foreign relations to safeguard the "motherland".
"Having won the freedom of our motherland, we must next establish our freedom
and sovereignty internationally," Rajapaksa said, apparently sending a message
to the Western nations which are seen to be interfering in Sri Lanka's internal
affairs.
"We have honest, close, and friendly relations with our neighboring countries
in Asia ... Those honest friends have carried out the greatest responsibility
towards our freedom and sovereignty in this era. We value very much the
assistance we received from all those countries at this moment. Our people who
enjoy the satisfaction of freedom together with them must always have in their
hearts the friendship extended by these friends," he said.
Rajapaksa was obviously referring to China, India, Pakistan, Russia and other
countries which recently helped Sri Lanka pass a resolution in its favor at the
United Nations Human Rights Council.
However, Sri Lanka's relations with China have raised some eyebrows in India.
Analysts there have raised concern about a deep-sea harbor which China is
building in Sri Lanka's southern town of Hambantota.
Kohona rebuts these concerns and says Hambantota port is being developed on a
commercial basis and it will be totally under Sri Lanka's control. "It will not
be a threat to anyone, in particular to India." He says India's security
concerns are a fundamental plank in Sri Lanka's international relations
framework and Colombo would be always conscious of it.
Ameen Izzadeen is a Colombo-based journalist.
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