New vistas in foreign relations

Manjula Fernando

In winning the three decades old war, which most believed was a daydream, Sri Lanka maneuvered the international community with such exceptional prowess that for the first time in history the LTTE was demanded by the West to ‘lay down arms and surrender’.

During the four year tenure of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama expressed, ‘Sri Lanka became known for our nationally oriented stance in terms of foreign relations.’

“We stood for our rights. The international community started to respect and understand Sri Lanka as a country that seeks engagement with the outside world with substance. We showed that we don’t need sympathy and we showed that we were not ready to compromise the national agenda for their international aid.”“President Rajapaksa’s engagement with international community was a major highlight in the history of Sri Lanka.

Never before has a single leader of our country engaged with international community so much. Sri Lanka is today the Chair of the SAARC, the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) which has a membership of 31 Asian countries and the Chair of the G-15,” Bogollagama said.

His vision to harness as many allies as possible in the international front without leaning on a few superpowers as well as his decision to align with the Asian and African nations proved to be rewarding when we were cornered by the Western block at a UN Human Rights Council Special session, just a week after we rewrote history by defeating the LTTE.

The outcome of the special session well exceeded the size of our tiny island. Sri Lanka was able to emerge victorious by not less than an overwhelming majority. The moves by the Western block to bring amendments to the resolution, was also crushed by Sri Lanka’s friends.

The UN release issued after the special session read, ‘In the resolution, which was adopted by a vote of 29 in favour, 12 against, and six abstentions, ‘the Council commended the measures taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to address the urgent needs of the Internally Displaced Persons and welcomed the continued commitment of Sri Lanka to the promotion and protection of all human rights, and encouraged it to continue to uphold its human rights obligations and the norms of international human rights law’.

Excellent ties

Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Uruguay and Zambia voted in Sri Lanka’s favour.

Eleven states from the African sub-continent and all the members of the HRC from the Middle East voted in favour of Sri Lanka at this 11th special session which reflected the excellent bilateral relations Sri Lanka maintained with these countries.President Rajapaksa was the first Sri Lankan Head of State to visit Libya.He received a hero’s welcome during his second visit there in September to attend the 40th anniversary of the Libyan revolution. This visit led to the opening of a new mission in Tripoli and 100,000 job opportunities for Lankan workers.

As Dr. T. Jayasinghe wrote to Asian Tribune sometime ago ‘the warmth of the welcome President Rajapaksa received from the Libyan host was unprecedented.

Even the leaders of other nations including President Hugo Chavez who were in Libya greeted President Mahinda Rajapaksa treating him as a heroic “terminator” returning from the battle field after defeating the most ruthless terrorist outfit.

All would have envied the way the host Colonel Muammer Gaddaffi received President Rajapaksa and sat by his side with an arm on the shoulder clearly expressing his comradeship.’‘As far as President Mahinda Rajapaksa is concerned he has more than enough credentials to convince anyone that he is a proven friend of the Arab world.

He made a great contribution to the Arab cause as President of the Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine from 1975 to 2004. He continues to be its Patron. The Palestine problem being the core issue in the Arab world his contribution is held in very high esteem by Arab and Islamic countries.’

On the Asian front he was precise in balancing relations with the regional powers, India, Pakistan, China and Russia. During the height of war China and Pakistan, as long standing allies of Sri Lanka did their best not to let our armories dry out thus helping our Forces to continue to maintain their dominance in the battle field.

President Rajapaksa also proved his audacity by expanding relations with Cuba, Iran, Myanmar and Vietnam. His critics were silenced when such relations began to bring in positive results. Iran came forward with help during the oil crisis and has assisted us enormously in the power and irrigation sectors.

Relations with the Middle East were further underlined by several high profile visits by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in April 2008 followed by President Rajapaksa’s state visit to Iran in November 2007 and a visit by Palestine President Mahmood Abbas in October 2008.

Under the President’s leadership Sri Lanka braced international pressure during the height of the humanitarian operation with great composure and without a flinch stood up to face the allegations levelled against the country and redeem its good name.

Sri Lanka’s endeavours created a positive reaction from the higher political circles of the ruling party in Tamil Nadu. Minister of Youth Empowerment Arumugam Thondaman visited Tamil Nadu on a couple of occasions as a special envoy of the President and these meetings resulted in neutralizing the political scene there on the Sri Lankan issue.

The role played by the US law enforcing authorities, the CIA and the FBI in dismantling the LTTE terror network had been exceptional. The arrests and prosecution of leading LTTE weapon procurers on US soil in 2006 paved the way to a string of arrests worldwide and the interception and destruction of Tiger arms shipments.

The LTTE campaigned regularly to be taken off the U.S. State Department’s terrorist list. In August 2006, federal authorities arrested and charged eight suspects in New York with attempting to bribe U.S. officials to remove the LTTE from the list. The suspects, were also charged with trying to purchase surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers, AK-47s, and other weapons for the LTTE.A resolution (711) was passed in the House of representatives of the US Congress on November 5 , 2009 calling for speedy resettlement of IDPs.

This resolution passed by a vote 421 to 1 also recognised the positive initiatives of the government towards this goal and is without the usual rhetoric of the international rights organisations such as the AI and the Human Rights Watch, a notable shift in comparison to their earlier resolutions.On the GSP issue Sri Lanka has indomitably maintained the stance that the Government will not agree to an investigation by the European Union to extend the GSP + concessions, as it will be an infringement of its sovereignty. However , it has expressed that it was ready for a constructive discussion on the subject to clarify any outstanding issues.

Several institutions and ministries led by the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry had been continuously engaging the EU on this issue and Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe says there is better understanding emerging from the EU that Sri Lanka should be given more time and that there was a prospect of extending these concessions to Sri Lanka once again.

Under President Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka is strengthening its relations with all friendly countries all over the world without ever subjugating the country’s sovereignty.