Vibrant foreign policy through multiple engagements

By Indeewara Thilakarathne

[email protected]
 

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in an exclusive interview with Sunday Observer outlined the unique opportunities the SAARC will offer for Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka chairs the regional body and the successful campaign that Sri Lankan missions have been engaged in countering LTTE’s propaganda at international level as well as support the missions enlisted in the areas of trade, investments and bilateral cooperation between many nations of the world.

Q: After assuming office as Minister of Foreign Affairs, what are the initiatives that you have taken to re-orient Sri Lankan foreign policy?

A: Sri Lanka needed greater visibility in the international scene. Towards that we have achieved a several major milestones. Within the first year, we have been able to enter Asian Regional Forum of twenty seven countries and Sri Lanka became the last member.

Today, it has become a major security platform in the Asia Pacific region with all the major players associating it. Secondly, we became a member of Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) and Shangni-La-Dialogue. There are major countries in it and Sri Lanka is a member of that important forum.

I was able to arrange several high ranking visits to the US. All these State visits during this period were led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. We have covered quite a range of both multilateral and bilateral engagements. We are able to host the SAARC Summit in Sri Lanka and be the Chair, beginning August 2008.

These are major achievements for a country where international engagements and international relations are concerned. Further we have now peace oriented Sri Lanka’s foreign policy on an agenda meant for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s agenda is now taking course of its direction.

There is terrorism in Sri Lanka and we are successful in countering that and also we are empowering people with democracy. We have shown that in Eastern Province. The LTTE is a terrorist organisation and call for the banning all its front organisations. They were banned in the United States and in the United Kingdom and they will be banned in the other parts of the world soon.

We also got the assistance of major countries in countering terrorism in all its manifestations including money laundering, raising of funds in foreign locations, drug smuggling and arms procurement.

These are some of the work we have done. We have brought security elements in international scene to a higher level with our presence in the Shanghi-la-Dialogue. We are sharing intelligence with the rest of the world in countering terrorism.

So we have been with very visible foreign policy engagements and we are meeting major slice of the None -Alliance Movement. We became a member of the AMED (Asia Middle East Dialogue) in 2003 and internationally we have become well established in terms of country of its own profile with a high degree of visibility and bringing a lot of friends.

Q: There are allegations that Sri Lankan missions abroad me not providing the services expected of them and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is squandering people’s money. What are the measures that you have taken to improve the efficiency and the service provided by Sri Lankan missions abroad particularly in Middle Eastern countries?

A: In fact, if you take all the foreign missions numbering about 55, about 90 per cent are working extremely well.

There are one or two where there are drawbacks and we are changing some of the officials to make them result-oriented and improve our quality of services. Today in the Middle Eastern missions, we have a major presence of our Sri Lankans in Middle East, much more than what it was before.

So that shows we have so many people to cater to. In spite of that, toady we immediately get compensation for death through our consular services. When people go and land, there are now contracts that Government has entered into with the respective host countries, looking after their welfare and wellbeing.

So these functions we have improved during the last couple of months and we are continuing on that development programme even for the future.

We are training our Foreign Service personnel to be more people-centric and pursue the Sri Lankan agenda more forcefully in addressing these issues.

We are countering the LTTE propaganda. Today our missions have launched a major campaign in Europe in countering LTTE propaganda. So I am quite pleased that the missions are working and they are going to be result-oriented.

Q: Is there a “reporting mechanism” that can be used by expatriate Sri Lankans to contact you and lodge their complaints directly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo?

A: We have e-mail twenty-four hour hotlines through which any one can reach us, as most of the people do.

Q: Is there a mechanism other than bureaucratic channels to monitor the functions of Sri Lankan officials in diplomatic missions?

A: We have a major supervisory function now in place. Every mission head has to report to me in terms of daily routine and even daily engagements. We have got an electronic diary system where their diaries on my laptop screen. That means I can access and see what the mission in Paris is doing for the day and what the ambassador’s appointments are and be satisfied with their performance.

Q: How many Sri Lankan ambassadors successfully engaged in lobbying for Sri Lanka and attending lectures and holding discussions on global terrorism?

A. There are two functions. You do not broadcast all what we are doing. Because in diplomacy there are so many things we have to do in silence. This is called silence diplomacy’, but a productive engagement. What matters is how best we engaged.

Today, if you see why the LTTE is weaning internationally it is because our diplomatic missions have been able to access the nerve centres in those countries and explained to them of dangers posed by the LTTE terrorism. So there are lots of things we do without broadcasting them.

Q: What are the priority areas of the Government with regard to SAARC Summit and the benefits our country would derive from it? How important is it from the perspective of improving bilateral and of course, trade relationships with SAARC Countries?

A: There are several. It is a major platform for us in the region. We also have the bilateral value of that with all the member countries together with visiting observer countries. They are numbering eight, including United States, Japan, China, Korea, Mauritius, Iran and European Union.

Australia is lining up to be a member of SAARC. So we have a very productive engagement as a result of Sri Lanka chairing the SAARC and we can now work on an agenda on behalf of the entire region.

This regional agenda is something that we can pursue in terms of food security, energy sources development, alternative source of energy to be identified, in terms of education, SAARC University and SAARC development fund with a capital of over 300 million US dollars that is going to be subscribed, in terms of regional trade. President Rajapaksa is talking about a common currency for the region.

We focus in terms of taking Sri Lanka forward through the SAARC initiatives and benefiting out of the SAARC network of Sri Lanka in terms of tourism in the region, connectivity with forming capital in the region and sharing technological development with the rest of SAARC region and getting opportunities for our people by means of industries or of investments in addition to the Social Agenda that the SAARC Charter and in terms of cultural interaction and development. So these are all major developments and achievements for one to look at in terms of SAARC initiatives and Sri Lanka will stand to benefit by chairing the Summit.

There is so much of world attention that is getting centred on Sri Lanka which was spoken only in connection with terrorism sometimes back, is now becoming a major platform for international focusing.

Sri Lanka is becoming the international focus because we are giving leadership to a very important region in the world certainly at a time, when the Indian subcontinent has become a major driving force in terms of economy, trade and market potentials in the region.

In terms of nuclear development, India is a major player today. We are a part of major players and when you occupy the Chair your profile get raised. If you can get your profile raised as a country that is the biggest achievement you could get.

Otherwise you would emerge as mediocre and marginalized country as well. But today Sri Lanka is emerging as a powerful regional player and you have the SAARC platform for you to take your thinking forward in the region and incorporate the views of your regional counterparts and bring regional issues on board and address them both regionally and universally and take the message on behalf of the region to the world at large.

Sri Lanka has got the opportunity and its people will benefit out of that.

Q: Do you think that Sri Lanka would continue to follow conference diplomacy or mercantile diplomacy which would bring more and more foreign direct investments to Sri Lanka and open up employment opportunities for Sri Lankans in foreign soil?

A: Sri Lanka is a country that is advocating economic diplomacy. We want tourists, trade, industries investors and also the quality of life for people.

The Foreign Ministry is always looking at this agenda. Because when we are implementing counter terrorism measures successfully, we know the success of our efforts are going to materialize soon and getting to the development agenda for Sri Lanka and for that you must be universally engaged, regionally operational.

That is why we are in the ASEAN regional forum, in the Asian Incorporation Dialogue and also having a very strong presence in the Non-Aligned Movement. We are today a member of the Commonwealth Action Group which is called the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG).

That shows that Sri Lankan profile have got elevated to a higher level and that elevation is something that we must retain in order to get benefits for the country. Today the Foreign Ministry has become vibrant and looking forward to engage itself in multilateral forums while maintaining very strong ties bilaterally with a lot of important countries for Sri Lanka’s needs and going far to realise major financial and economic benefits for the country.

That is how Sri Lanka is looking forward now and the SAARC Summit itself will give visibility for Sri Lanka through this major engagements.