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The Kerry visit: Some points to ponder
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera must be a satisfied man. Within the last 100 days, there has been two significant stand-alone official visits to Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Modi of India and US Secretary of State Kerry, achievements which had eluded the previous government.
After the Modi visit, pro-Mahinda political analysts had raised fears that a reference to “cooperative federalism” by the Indian Prime Minister would give impetus to pro-Eelam forces in the country.
Following the Kerry visit, these same analysts will probably try to raise the spectre of an “international conspiracy” that had dogged foreign policymaking under the previous regime. They should be reminded that the US has stood firmly with Sri Lanka in the fight against LTTE terrorism. It was only a few days ago that the former Navy Commander, in a press interview, had acknowledged that it was US-provided intelligence that enabled the Navy to locate and destroy the floating LTTE arsenals, which was a major contribution to the war effort. It is also well known that in the US, law enforcement operations had succeeded in arresting attempts to smuggle arms to the LTTE.
The present government has underlined the importance of resetting the relationship with the US which is the main market for Sri Lanka garments. Foreign policy, they say must follow economic interests. Yet, at the political level, US-Sri Lanka relations has had its ups and downs. As a young officer on a first overseas posting in Washington D.C. in the late 1970s,I remember the State Department officer who remarked that Sri Lanka was considered as “unreliable”, citing that it was the only country against which the US Congress had imposed sanctions under the Hickenlooper Amendment and the Battle Act, for nationalising the foreign oil companies and trading with an “enemy” nation, China. History will relate that many years later the US would reverse its own policy and normalise relations with China. In contrast, Sri Lanka’s foreign policy standard of friendship to all, has proved consistent and firm, hence the resilience of its bilateral relationship with China and Japan, for example. Strong early foundations of foreign policy were laid in Sri Lanka at a time when professionals were in charge whose advice was valued by the politicians in power.
Today, there is a huge anti-American sentiment sweeping the developing world, mainly on account of its military interventions in the Middle East, to which segments of the Sri Lankan people are not immune. Yet ask any young Sri Lankan which country he would want to visit, without hesitation, the reply would be the US. America is still seen as the land of equal opportunity where irrespective of caste or creed, one could succeed in any field. The American brand has a particularly strong constituency in academia and generations of Sri Lankan scholars and experts who have studied there, can speak of the generous welcome and access to knowledge and technology. So people-to-people links are enormously important and hence it is a pity that in a one day visit Mr. Kerry will not have the opportunity of the town hall meetings, the question and answer sessions with students, the walkabouts among the people, which have made the Obama visits so popular and successful in dispelling negative images.
Mr Kerry comes from Massachusetts where the Sri Lanka Tamil diaspora groups first began organising in the late 1970s and they even succeeded in passing a resolution on Sri Lanka in that Assembly. Several of the American missionaries who came to Jaffna in the last century and raised its education and health institutions to new heights, were from Massachusetts. Human rights concerns have always been a part of the bilateral dialogue.
But the US initiative to lead a resolution against Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council, albeit in the context of its own campaign as a human rights defender, broke the tradition of quiet friendly discussion and has not been well received here. Will the US make amends now that there is a government in place with an expressed commitment to good governance? It would be good to see Mr. Kerry, while expressing support for the recent constitutional changes, also place on record US commitment to Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and unity. There should be no room left for speculation of hidden agendas centering around the use of Sri Lanka’s ports and facilities.
(The writer is a former Sri Lanka Foreign Service Ambassador)