A new post cold war world order is taking shape nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent ascendency of Russia and China in international affairs. Sri Lanka, seems comfortable right now hitching its wagon to these rising stars. Just a month ago, both China and Russia stood steadfast with Sri Lanka when efforts were made by some countries to slap ‘war crimes’ charges against its leaders in the backdrop of the fight to finish off the LTTE.
This week, the Government proudly announced its application for membership as a Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) had been accepted. An official statement referred to the “strategic and important role that Sri Lanka can play in international affairs”. Exaggerated as it may sound, it still signifies the drift of the country’s foreign policy.

The SCO is a Chinese initiative that has its origins in efforts to form a strategic alliance with Russia --one-time Communist allies and later bitter foes--and some of the states created with the break-up of the Soviet Union : Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. An unlikely conglomeration to find Sri Lanka in, it nevertheless indicates the drift in Sri Lankas foreign policy.

This was not a new initiative, really. It began in the early part of this decade and it was handled by the then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar because the SCO already had given India and Pakistan Observer Status in this organization aimed at building good neighbourliness among nations covering a vast geographical area extending from Russia to China. Sri Lanka was first refused Observer Status, but now has been given a lesser Dialogue Partner Status. Significantly the United States was refused any status in SCO.

The ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party had traditional ties with the socialist bloc countries, and the Afro-Asian and Latin American states that eventually were the bulwark of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), while the United National Party showed a pro-Western tilt based mainly on its economic relations. Lanka was even invited to join the pro-US ASEAN in the early years, but declined due to the then Left-wing opposition, while later it gave the impetus to the South Asian regional group, SAARC.

If it was the Commonwealth and the Colombo Plan after Independence, the post 1977 era saw huge development projects with Western aid and from international lending institutions. There were tangible benefits for the people of Sri Lanka from so many foreign countries – the Mahaveli dams at Victoria (Britain), Kotmale (Sweden), Maduru Oya (Canada), Maduru Oya downstream (US, Japan and World Bank), Samanalawewa (Japan), Uda Walawe (ADB and Japan), Randenigala and Rantembe (Germany), the Superior Courts Complex (China), the Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital and the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital (Japan), the Colleges of Education in Matara (Japan) and Hatton (Germany), the Southern Highway (ADB), so on and so forth.

Outlining his foreign policy soon after taking office - clearly influenced by his erstwhile ally, the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna - President Mahinda Rajapaksa said, “I will follow a non-aligned, free and progressive foreign policy. Priority will be given in the political, defence, economic, trade and cultural spheres to the cordial and friendly relationships that we already have with countries in the Asian region including India, Japan, China and Pakistan.”

The President won plaudits for standing up to Western countries which have given themselves the status of the ‘International Community’ (IC) when they wanted the ‘war’ against the LTTE stalled. They are no doubt bitter that their bullying got them nowhere. This compounded with the rough handling of the ill-advised visits by some of their Foreign Ministers and parliamentarians, has left a bitter after -taste and there is the urge to teach Sri Lanka ‘a lesson’. We saw this in the moves to reprimand Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and efforts to disgrace the country before the United Nations.

There are too, deep-rooted plans to re-write the international principle of ‘sovereignty of nations’. The ‘R2P’ (Right to Protect) concept has already been floated in places like the UN, to make direct interventions in countries where there are claims of human rights violations. This concept is justifiable if evenly exercised, but is now heavily weighted in favour of the super-powers, and in this case, the Western nations whose double-standards irk the rest of the world.

The late Lakshman Kadirgamar once said (Oct. 2004) at a meeting of the SLFP at the Colombo Town Hall: “A large number of countries are involved in the so-called peace process in Sri Lanka. ….Not all these foreign countries necessarily have our interest at heart. Some of them have goodwill. We must accept it thankfully. It is good to have goodwill throughout the world, but we have to be careful because the agenda of some of these countries is not necessarily with the sovereignty of Sri Lanka

In the same speech, he paid handsome tribute to the United States of America for her support in the ‘war’ against the LTTE and referred to India’s ‘turn-around’ in its policy towards the LTTE.

The point is that while the Government must be mindful of the machinations of neo-colonialists often coming in the form of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs), it must not completely shut the door to one part of the world that has, over the years, been a friend.

Clearly, a bulk of Sri Lanka’s trade, aid and both employment and educational opportunities are still firmly rooted to the West. Our trade surpluses are with the West because they are largely importers of our products. The tourists and the bulk of foreign investment still come from the West, or pro-West Asian countries. No country – be it India, China or Russia –however powerful, has severed relations or even had continuously strained relations with the West and yet ensured domestic economic growth.

The New World Order changeth. Britain has already showed signs of abandoning the Commonwealth for the European Union. Sri Lanka too must see the new world with fresh eyes. There is much wisdom in Mahatma Gandhi’s words - “I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible but I refuse to be swept off my feet by any”.
One might ask whether the President’s recent trips to Libya, Iran, Jordan and Myanmar are sending negative signals to the West.

He returned just this week from Myanmar where he would surely have seen the impact on her lovely people of an insular regime that has closed its borders to the rest of the world.