A new era in foreign relations

Sri Lanka may be an island, but that does not mean that we can live in isolation, cut off from the rest of the world. As a member of the United Nations and the wider international community, we have to be on good terms with the rest of the world. In doing so, we need to engage constructively again with the members of the international community.

The new Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has hit the right notes on this score, visiting India and meeting envoys from several countries at his office in Colombo. Samaraweera is the ideal person for the job, having been Foreign Minister previously and proved his mettle. It should be recalled that as Foreign Minister for a brief period in the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, he pointed out the dangerous path the Government was treading on with regard to foreign relations.

On more than one occasion, he pointed out verbally and in writing that the Government should engage with the international community instead of confronting it on every issue. However, his views were disregarded and the Rajapaksa Government increased its inflammatory rhetoric, unnecessarily escalating a confrontation with the West and other friendly countries over a number of issues. At the end of the day, Sri Lanka was left with only a very few ‘friends’ in the international arena, most of which were equally despotic regimes.

The previous Government’s alienation of the West whilst adopting a ‘Look Africa’ policy was an unmitigated disaster as those countries could offer us almost nothing in terms of trade, tourism and diplomatic clout at international forums.The appointment of cronies of the regime to some of the top diplomatic posts did not help. Our diplomatic initiatives were very ineffective in countries such as the US, where the Government appointed a number of lobbying firms at enormous cost to the Sri Lankan taxpayer. Incidents such as the assault on Sri Lanka’s former High Commissioner to the UK Chris Nonis dented our image further in foreign diplomatic circles. The lack of a cohesive diplomatic strategy resulted in a number of failures at the UN Human Rights Council and on issues such as GSP Plus and fish exports to the European Union. The lifting of the ban on the LTTE in the EU on technical grounds was another monumental failure of the Foreign Service. But one of the biggest mistakes was straining our relationship with India.

India is our closest neighbour and the relationship between the two countries goes back thousands of years to the days of the Buddha, who Himself visited this island thrice. Buddhism was brought here from India and religious, cultural and social ties between the two nations have flourished over the centuries. As can be seen from President Barack Obama’s visit to India, one cannot underestimate the geopolitical influence of India. Even the former President once admitted that “India is a relative, while others are friends”.However, this close relationship was strained due to several factors. President Rajapaksa made many promises on power devolution to Indian leaders, but did not honour those pledges. After winning the war, he made little or no efforts to address the concerns of the Tamil community in the North and the East.

Tensions escalated with Tamil Nadu and the fishermen’s issue was also left unresolved. India, which was one of the prime movers of the pro-Sri Lanka resolution at the UNHRC in 2009, ultimately voted against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, marking the lowest point in the relations between the two nations.

Minister Samaraweera has done the correct thing by visiting India first and meeting its leadership. One cannot expect things to get rosy overnight, but the process of rebuilding mutual trust has started in earnest. With mutual visits by President Maithripala Sirisena and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi planned to each other’s countries, the relationship can be rekindled on a clean slate. In fact, this is spurred by the fact that both countries have new Governments that have no preconceived notions. It is vital to rebuild our ties with India, from which we can also learn many lessons in power devolution and good governance.

In fact, in an interview with The Economist, Minister Samaraweera outlined how he expects Sri Lanka's place in foreign affairs to change. For a start, warmer relations with India are all but guaranteed: he describes bilateral ties as “a state of irreversible excellence”, with the “strained” relations that were experienced under former President Rajapaksa an “aberration” that must now be forgotten.

Contrary to popular belief, having better ties with India does not mean that our links with China should be debased in any way. China has remained an exceptional friend and the Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka was among the first envoys to personally call on the new President. However, it is vital to take certain geopolitical realities into consideration in balancing our foreign policy and there is also a need to review certain Chinese funded unsolicited projects in the interests of financial transparency. The latter proposal has been taken in the correct spirit by the Chinese companies concerned which have promised to work together with the Sri Lankan Government in probing these deals.

But the biggest challenge in the foreign relations arena seems to be mending our relations with the West which have been strained to breaking point. One must remember that the West – especially USA and the European Union account for over 75 percent of Sri Lanka’s exports. They also happen to be the country’s biggest inbound tourism markets. These countries are traditional democracies just like Sri Lanka and hence have a deep and abiding interest in human rights and other features of democracy.

The previous Government dismissed some of their requests to strengthen democracy and human rights in Sri Lanka as an act of interference and an attack on our sovereignty, whereas such steps would actually have reinforced our sovereignty and personal liberty. Some former ministers even went to the extent of saying that the Presidential election itself was a “Western-backed international conspiracy” when it was infact called by none other than the former President himself.

The biggest bone of contention that strained our ties with the West was the Human Rights situation in the final days of the conflict, especially the allegation on civilian deaths. Sri Lanka has now lost several resolutions in the UNHRC over this matter. The new President and the Prime Minister have made it clear that Sri Lanka will not allow an international investigation on any violations of International Humanitarian Law in the final days of the conflict. No Sri Lankan soldier or official will have to go to the so-called “electric chair” in The Hague, a favourite slogan of the former President. On the other hand, there will be a credible, impartial domestic mechanism to probe these allegations and the Government will also engage constructively with the countries that have found fault with us at the UNHRC and outside of it. The Government will also implement most of the LLRC recommendations, another request by the International community.

These are indeed signs of an impending new era in our foreign relations. Sri Lanka is now poised to regain its position as a vibrant member of the international community after almost a decade.