{"id":108447,"date":"2020-11-08T21:19:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T03:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108447"},"modified":"2020-11-08T14:09:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T21:09:43","slug":"war-of-words-amongst-world-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/08\/war-of-words-amongst-world-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"WAR OF WORDS AMONGST WORLD LEADERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ambassador Sarath Wijesinghe, President\u2019s Counsel, President of the Ambassadors Forum, Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to UAE and Israel. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

War of words are not uncommon in international\ncircles. But the war of words between China and USA relating to Sri Lanka occurring\nin Sri Lanka has to be taken seriously based on the context, contents and tone\nof the exchange of words. The fact that it has happened in our soil worries us as\npeaceful peace loving people. Exchange of words among the members of the\ndiplomatic community should be based on diplomacy conventions, practices, and norms\nof international law and practices based on conventions and precedents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent visit of the US Secretary Of State Michael\nPompeo to Sri Lanka during a tour in Asia, looking for opportunities to play a\nrole with friendship and hopes as stated in the speech has unfortunately led to\ncontroversies and discussions in many circles in the international arena. This\nhas sent shock waves to the international community engaged in diplomacy and\ninternational affairs due to protests in Sri Lanka over various allegations.\nSecretary Pompeo smilingly answered the questions posed by the interviewer\ngiving underlying messages to all the parties concerned and the sanctions\nimposed on 24 Chinese companies including builders of Colombo Port City. This\nindicates that the war of words have connotations. The Construction Company and\nthe Chinese Embassy tweeting immediately in response to those comments made and\nthus aggravating the issue further. War of words or deeds on our soil will not be\nin our interest nor in favour and it is our duty to pacify the tension between\nparties using our good office based on our experience as done my Madam Bandaranaike\nduring the Indo – China conflict in 1960s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA and China are world leaders in trade, fiercely\ncompeting with each other for world supremacy on trade and commerce. Both\ndemands friendship and ownership with credentials claiming China as predators\nwhereas USA as a true friend. Obviously trade and political power runs parallel\nusing political power to promote trade and commerce adopting illegal and\nunethical practices. China has given funds to Sri Lanka lavishly and with less conditions\nwith no expectations whereas USA expects transparency, proper fiscal management,\nin a democratic environment with human rights protected and adherence to\ninternational standards. China has funded Hambantota Harbour, Mattala Airport\nand Port City and is reminiscent of the Rubber Rice pact in 1952. USA is the\nsingle largest buyer of 45% of our apparels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

World trade is complicated and covers a large spectrum\nwith the involvement and interference of WTO in which the Chinese obtained\nmembership in 2001. World powers with political and economic interests are\ninterested in extending the power in the Indian Ocean, once a quiet sea with great\npotential and treasures in the sea bed which has today transformed in to an\nactive important and vibrant ocean utilized by a large number of ships. Sri\nLanka is positioned in the most strategic position with historic traditional bonds\nrunning back to thousands of years with Arab, Chinese and other sea merchants\noften dealing with Sri Lanka on the traditional \u2018Seda Mawatha\u2019 (Silk Route) which\ncurrently embeds the Belt and Road initiative. Sri Lanka maintained links with\nthe West due to the trade links with naval powers, resulting intervention in politics\nof this independent island with a long history of culture and friendship with\nthe rest of the world. Sri Lanka\u2019s bonds with the West, USA, UN and subsidiary\nbodies and international organizations are close in keeping with the model of diplomacy\nshe has adhered to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the end of the cold war between then world\npowers USA and USSR, USA and China has emerged as world trade leaders fiercely\ncompeting with each other for trade, commerce and political power. USA and\nChina being the two large trade giants respectively look for a pivot role in\nAsia and USA is seeking entry via Indian Ocean for free access to Asia for\ntrade and political power. International politics is a \u2018Chess Game\u2019 which is ever\nchanging, reminding that there are no permanent friends and enemies in politics,\nlocal or international. Today USA, India, Australia and Japan have formed the \u2018QUAD\u2019\nas a group to compete with the common enemy \u2013 China, allowing the new found\nfriendship for USA to develop political ambitions and the others for trade and\ncommerce. The visit of the US State Secretary to Asia is for a multi-purpose\nexploration of political, business and goodwill missions with many plans and\nhopes with all nations visited. Visits to other countries were without much\ncontroversy except Sri Lanka due to mass opposition to MCC, SOFA, ACSA\nagreements and plans for and kind of defence agreements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strength of a Nation is the firm and correct\nforeign policy. It is doubtful whether Sri Lanka is equipped and armed with\nthis weapon as before when Sri Lanka and India led the Non-Alignment Movement\nin the most exemplary way in 1970s with firm political leadership. Indian\nforeign policy and principles are static based on India first foreign policy\naiming at promoting India. Do we have a\nforeign policy on a Sri Lanka first basis when successive governments to date\nhave taken different positions? <\/em>The Text book version of the Sri Lankan\nforeign policy has been friendly with all and angry with none based on\nprinciples non-alignment and neutrality with a practical approach. Were we non-aligned\/neutral and did we\nconduct ourselves so – especially during \u2018Yahapalanaya\u2019 regime when the Executive,\nLegislature and the Minister of Foreign Affairs took independent, arbitrary actions\nin dealing with international affairs?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand non-alignment does not mean being quiet\nand impartial alone. State must play a positive role in dealing with the\ninterest of the country you represent. Switzerland is impartial in\ninternational affairs but does not belong to the Non-Alignment Movement and\nadhere to its principles. Sri Lanka must have a firm, powerful, correct and\ncoherent Sri Lanka friendly foreign policy which will give strength, direction\nand acceptance, acting fast and smart with a proper policy framework. A nation\nmust be fortunate have an effective Foreign Minister efficient Secretary, a\nvibrant Ministry and an extremely able battery of Ambassadors working round the\nclock, giving priority to trade and image building. We fondly remember Madam\nBandaraneika as the best foreign minister ever with great respect and wish the\npresent group will learn from our past glory hoping mother Sri Lanka will be\nactive in foreign policy making and implementation which leads to the success\nof all other areas in governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Buddha said \u2018He who lives by Dharma is protected\nby Dharma\u2019 meaning that the Dharma preached by the Buddha is supreme and should\nbe practiced for success and protection and that the individual or the nation\nwill be protected by Dhamma (Teachings of Buddha) they practice. In the same\nway if and when a nation has a firm and correct foreign policy in practice it will\nbe the protection and the success of the Nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The author takes responsibility for the contents of\nthe article and could be contacted on sarath7@hotmail.co.uk)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ambassador Sarath Wijesinghe, President\u2019s Counsel, President of the Ambassadors Forum, Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to UAE and Israel. War of words are not uncommon in international circles. But the war of words between China and USA relating to Sri Lanka occurring in Sri Lanka has to be taken seriously based on the context, contents and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}