{"id":110491,"date":"2021-01-07T17:16:35","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T00:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110491"},"modified":"2021-01-07T17:16:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T00:16:35","slug":"subramanyam-jaishankar-and-pounds-of-flesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/07\/subramanyam-jaishankar-and-pounds-of-flesh\/","title":{"rendered":"Subramanyam Jaishankar and pounds of flesh"},"content":{"rendered":"

MALINDA SENEVIRATN\u200bE<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Indian Foreign Minister arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday. His schedule includes discussions with the President, Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.  Any visit by any Indian minister or senior official is important, this is undebatable. Not because \u2018we are old friends\u2019 or \u2018have a long, shared history\u2019 (the \u2018friendship\u2019 is debatable and the \u2018history\u2019 has been by and large sordid).

That said, things can change (very slowly, yes). Prime Minister Modi is not exactly a clone of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who thought the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 would be the Bhutanization of Sri Lanka. Nothing wrong in hoping that he has abandoned the age-old Kautilyan foreign-relations \u2018non-negotiables\u2019 of fighting with closest neighbors and being friends with those beyond. India is not friends with China (despite the massive volume of trade between the two countries). India is more than cosy with the United States of America and Jaishankar has had a lot to do with improved relations.

The USA is not Sri Lanka\u2019s friend. Let\u2019s get that straight and out of the way. So when the USA gets pally with India after showing disappointment that Sri Lanka wasn\u2019t interested in the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact, Sri Lanka should be wary of any Indian moves. The USA\u2019s ideological and political allies in Sri Lanka (including ex-Deputy Governors of the Central Bank, SJB parliamentarian Harsha De Silva, and the [un]thinking tank Advocata) appear to be more upset than the US Ambassador over this non-event. Some have screamed, \u2018repercussions!\u2019

Well, India has buddied with the USA to set up the \u2018Quad\u2019 or the Quadrilateral Security Dialog which includes Japan and Australia, which is clearly a move to contain China\u2019s rise in the region and of course the world. Some call it the Asian NATO. The Indian Defense Secretary recently insulted Sri Lanka during a visit to Nepal, warning (yes!) that country from getting assistance from China. China, by the way, is not Sri Lanka\u2019s best friend in terms of aid. That \u2018distinction\u2019 goes to Japan.

This is not all the context there is. There\u2019s the impending UNHRC sessions in Geneva. The by now par-for-the-course surrounding noise has been made by the Washington-led media and of course the Washington-dependent rights outfits. Sri Lanka is set to be hauled over the coals. Yes, the USA has pulled out from that \u2018Cesspit of bias\u2019 but that hasn\u2019t stopped Uncle Sam from leveraging its allies to get the dirty work done. It\u2019s an ideal time for India to play \u2018friend!\u2019 If there is a resolution against Sri Lanka, India won\u2019t object. India might not even support it. However, India is most likely to do the friend-thing: dilute the resolution. And Sri Lanka would be required to applaud.

The big-deals will take place in this context. The Eastern Terminal for example. India is actively sabotaging the Colombo Port already through an Indian company and taking control of the terminal would put Sri Lanka at India\u2019s mercy. India, once its port operations in the Andaman Islands are done, will \u2018gracefully leave.\u2019 And Sri Lanka would be required to applaud. Again. And again.

Subramanyam Jaishankar is no baby. He\u2019s a seasoned operator. A career diplomat, Jaishankar was once the Secretary, Foreign Ministry. He knows India, Indian interests and how the world operates. No wonder that Tata made him \u2018President – Corporate Affairs\u2019 when he retired. Before that, though, he had already established excellent relations with the USA, playing a key role in hammering out the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement. And just a few months ago on behalf of India he inked the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation (BECA) with the USA.

So, friends, this is no routing courtesy call. It\u2019s business. As usual. For India. Or anyone else for that matter. Jaishankar is taking care of Indian interests. As always there\u2019s give and take, more of the former as far as Sri Lanka is concerned. We are not in the right market here, so we can haggle only so much about the price.  

Jaishankar will no doubt come with some sugar because deals often have to be sweetened. Going from the sound bytes we\u2019ve heard or rather been made to listen to, it\u2019s like to be something to do with a vaccine to combat Covid-19. India can easily spare a few pricks and offer the rest on a concessionary loan. Sri Lanka would be required to applaud.

So, friends, once the joint statement is released or when India or Sri Lanka or both issue statements, let\u2019s resolve to read them carefully. Let\u2019s read between the lines. Let\u2019s keep context in mind. Let\u2019s remember histories that have left bloodstains behind and whose shadows will invariably fall on Sri Lanka come the UNHRC sessions.
Does India want to start on a fresh page? Well, India would like us to believe they do. Will they? Will they? Unlikely. If that were the case, the Indian Defense Secretary wouldn\u2019t have tossed around disparaging comments. If it\u2019s about give and take, no-free-lunches and such, then India should not have any problem with the paid-for lunch or the lunch-on-credit (as per their preferred narrative) that China offers.
Subramanyam Jaishankar is a professional turned politician. That\u2019s good for India. How good is it for Sri Lanka? Let\u2019s not bet on such things, shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

malindasenevi@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MALINDA SENEVIRATN\u200bE The Indian Foreign Minister arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday. His schedule includes discussions with the President, Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.  Any visit by any Indian minister or senior official is important, this is undebatable. Not because \u2018we are old friends\u2019 or \u2018have a long, shared history\u2019 (the \u2018friendship\u2019 is debatable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110491","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=110491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}