{"id":60720,"date":"2016-11-14T20:03:22","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T02:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=60720"},"modified":"2016-11-14T13:02:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T20:02:27","slug":"interview-chinese-ambassador-has-acted-within-the-ambit-of-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/11\/14\/interview-chinese-ambassador-has-acted-within-the-ambit-of-diplomacy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cINTERVIEW\u201d- \u201cCHINESE AMBASSADOR HAS ACTED WITHIN THE AMBIT OF DIPLOMACY\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarath Wijesinghe former Ambassador to UAE and Israel<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

VIENNA CONVENTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powers functions and the conduct of the Diplomats Missions and the working procedure is enshrined in the Convention on Diplomatic Relations ratified on 4thnApril 1961 subsequently developed by the member states with diplomatic skills and practices. There is uniformity on the practice and procedure through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs headed by experts on the subject irrespective of the political inclinations of the member nation. Ambassadors follow the directions and instructions of the Head of the State and the Foreign Ministry. The mandate of the Ambassador of the sending country is to look after political, trade, and economic interests with the host country with no confrontation and interference of internal affairs, however powerful the sending country is. Non-interference is a cardinal principle as enumerated in the UN Charter authorizing sovereignty of member states and treated equally. Article 2(1) of the UN Charter states that the organization is based on sovereign equality of its member states, and Article 2(7)\u00a0 that nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction\u201d. But it is a\u00a0 blot in the annuls of diplomatic practices in Sri Lanka that High Commissioner\u00a0 Dixith\u201d in 1987 interfered in the internal affairs paving the way for the Indo Sri Lanka accord and establishing Provincial Council based on the 13th<\/sup> Amendment to the Constitution, which is a white elephant today. Ambassadors and High Commissioners in the West including UK, USA, and EU satellite countries directly involved in Sri Lankan affairs and criticized with the NGOs on the Human Right Issues and the conduct of successive Sri Lankan Governments blatantly violating the Vienna Convention when Sri Lanka helplessly watched with no protest or remedy until the UN took the upper hand in bringing resolutions against Sri Lanka backed by India \u2013 our giant neighbour. It is only Russia, China, Pakistan and Non Alignment countries that came to our rescue in defeating the most powerful terror group that engulfed the nation for three decades with hundreds of thousand deaths, destruction and murder of world leaders including two Sri Lankan and Indian leaders. It was China our special friend\u201d that assisted Sri Lanka with Pakistan, and non ligned nations at the UN presenting Western Powers from using the security Council to stop the war en the LTE wa about to be wiped out.<\/p>\n

FINANCE MINISTER SHOULD BE CAREFUL, RESPONSIBLE, AND BALANCED<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is unbecoming of a Finance Minister repeatedly an Ambassador via media with colloquial statements such as wires crossed\u201d and undermining the massive and unprecedented assistance to Sri Lanka based on traditional and long relationship runs over thousands of years on cultural religious and economic bonds. Friendly historical and traditional bods that existed is in the public domain and contents of the exchange of words initiated by the\u00a0 Minister and the Ambassador that\u00a0 should not have taken place which are undiplomatic and contrary to principles of Good Governance. Good News is that the Chinese Ambassador is prepared to forget and forgive in the name of closeness with the two great Nations in the world family. Chinese Ambassador has spoken the truth based on facts and figures and the silence on the part of the Finance Minister is a good sign on reconciliation of the unfortunate saga.<\/p>\n

DIPLOMACY AND INTERNATINL ERLATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Article 3 of the Vienna Convention sates Promoting friendly relations between the sending state and the receiving state and developing the economic cultural and scientific relations\u201d as a main mandate of the representative to the host country. Today Ambassadors are given the responsibility of promoting economic interests as the main priority and the Ambassadors stationed in Sri Lanka work round the clock on promotional work. Promotion of the sending country\u00a0 on economic to promote trade and business interests , when the Chinese Embassy offering Sri Lanka the most needed economic assistance not forthcoming from western economics struggling and seeking assistance from China for financial assistance. China has the entire world to invest including the western countries including UK, USA, EU, and Africa. China has the right to turn back and seek legal redress via traditional arbitrations and international tribunals to seek redress to recover damages on breach of contract. Is such a situation Sri Lanka will be helpless and no country or organisation will come forward to help as many economic blocks are heavily indebted to China. Fortunately the tone of the Chinese Ambassador at the interview is the willingness to continue the traditional and historic friendship leave the disputes aside initiated erroneously by the Sri Lankan Finance minister who is now silent on the remarks made and the issues raised on public media. On 7th<\/sup> November government owned Daily News reported that the Foreign Minister is contemplating to summon the Chinese Ambassador who on 11th<\/sup> November went through the Interview conducted by Bandula Jyasekra on Pathikada. It appears that Finance Minister is warned and<\/p>\n

INTERVIEW BY THE AMBASSADOR <\/strong><\/p>\n

The contents of the words exchanged between and Finance Minister and the Ambassador spells out the magnitude of the assistance by China and the impact on the diplomatic relations between the two friendly nations. Despite the news items send the threat to summon the Chine ambassador on the statements made to the media, fathers interview on Pathikade on 11.11.16 by the Ambassador probably to clarify matters in dispute. It is reported that President has advised the Minister of Frogin Affairs and the Finance Minister\u2019s dead silence on the dispute indicates that he too world have ben warned to be diplomatic and act within the ambit of a powerful and responsible Minister. Chinese Ambassador is within the ambit of the Convention in clarifying issues diplomatically in order to maintain and protect the long cherished diplomatic relations between the two friendl nations.<\/p>\n

WAY FORWARD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ambassador\u2019s role in the modern world is transformed from the traditional ambassadorial duties to promotional exercises on Economy, Internal trade, Agriculture and International Trade by promoting the sending country which is the main assignment and the task given to an ambassador as the sole representative of the sending state. China has given the highest FDI ever to Sri Lanka in addition to the \u2013 Millions invested with the potential and intention of investing other\u2026.Sri Lanka is lifelong friend of all seasons\u00a0 over thousands of years and wishes to continue the beatifically island strategically situated in the Indian Ocean. Attracting direct FDI to Sri Lanka is not easy in this competitive world with many countries awaiting for assistance. It is not forthcoming from the west as they are economically unstable and depends on China for financial assistance. Loans from IMf, World Bank and other lending bodes ae stringent and linked to bonds, conditions and regulations on recovery and interest rates. Chinese loans are straight, with no links or strings attached with flexibility. It is on the best interest that Sri Lank maintains and enhances close and warm friendly relations existed for thousands of years. China is a friend need helped us when we were in assistance to end the 30 year war and in the international arena when the west was gunning at us with UN resolutions. It is time that the government be careful not to add fuel by making irresponsible statements and interviews. Former President Chandrika Kumaranatunga\u2019s interview to ITN implicating the Chinese Ambassador is is worrying as it may lead to further complications on China sri Lanka relations. Therese are matters to be avoided and we presume the Finance Minister\u2019s silence as the end of the unfortunate diplomatic saga. We must remain the closest friends and relations with both China and India in our own interest. We need to ensure that one will not be a the expense of the other. Chin will not do anything to give any country reason for an excuse to destabilise another country and will not interferes in internal affairs. India is our close relation and neighbour and we are grateful to her and the great son King Asoka who gave us Buddhism and initiation of our culture and heritage with the advent of Buddhism. Relationship with India will depend on our own conduct with a proper foreign policy with mutual benefit and trust on each other. We have had close bonds and relations with India except for few instances due to the mistakes of some rulers with no vision on international relations. It is time Sri Lanka have a correct and coherent foreign policy and for the leaders to speak to the world with one word.<\/p>\n

Writer could be reached on sarathdw28@hmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarath Wijesinghe former Ambassador to UAE and Israel VIENNA CONVENTION Powers functions and the conduct of the Diplomats Missions and the working procedure is enshrined in the Convention on Diplomatic Relations ratified on 4thnApril 1961 subsequently developed by the member states with diplomatic skills and practices. There is uniformity on the practice and procedure through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sarath-wijesinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60720","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=60720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}