Wide-ranging plans to sharpen SL’s dpl thrust politically & economically: – Colombage

by Sujeeva Nivunhella

Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage says that Sri Lanka will not agree to the special mechanism imposed by the UN Human Rights Commission yet will implement solutions as far as practically possible.

In a zoom interview with the Sunday Island Admiral Colombage said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given him clear instructions not to give extensions to diplomats beyond three years. He also said our missions abroad will focus more on economic diplomacy from this year.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: Are we still following the Non-Aligned line?

A: Yes, of course. We never came out of that. We are a non-aligned country, but due to geopolitical power play taking place in the Indian Ocean, we will have to maintain neutrality. We are not taking sides with any country to compete with another.

Q: But could one say that we are more inclines to China?

A: We engage in a large number of investment and business projects with China. At the same time, we do business with India, America, Japan, Korea, Australia and other European countries. All those investment projects compromise neither our security nor sovereignty. Right now, we need much more investment and currently, it is China that invests heavily. Some countries might think that China would exploit us, but it is up to us not to allow any country to exploit us strategically especially on a war-footing.

Q: Do you think that China’s is helping us to simply draw us into a debt trap?

A: I cannot comment on what the strategic objectives of another country are. However, we have lost about 10 billion US dollars due to the decline of the tourism industry for the last two years as an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. Right now, our main priority is to attract investments. Therefore, we must get help from any party willing to invest in our country.

Q: Do you think that due to our strategic location, America and India also want to keep a foothold here?

A: Yes, the whole world knows that Sri Lanka is located at a strategically important point on the Indian Ocean. The busiest maritime trade route across the Indian Ocean is only 12 nautical miles away from us. Owing to this, Sri Lanka is important to all the major and aspiring major powers in the Indian Ocean. I believe we need to use this attraction to our advantage and gain investments from as many countries as possible.

Q: Recently, you have closed down Embassies in Nigeria and Cyprus and the Consulate in Frankfurt. We know that there are large numbers of Sri Lankan workers in Cyprus and it was reported that they are facing difficulties due to the closure of the Embassy?

A: It was in 2013 when we did the last appraisal of our embassies. By 2021, we have got 67 overseas missions. It is not easy for a small country like us to maintain as many as 67 Missions, especially in view of the current economic situation in Sri Lanka. Other than the three Missions you mentioned we have also closed our Mission in Afghanistan due to some security concerns. Regarding the Embassy in Cyprus, there are over 6,000 Sri Lankans working in Cyprus and we get a substantial income from them. We are soon going to open an Honorary Consul General Office and our people will have access to the same service they used to.

Q: When we talk about our Foreign Service, it is quite unfortunate that the general public’s opinion tends to be that these diplomats only travel abroad to get their children foreign education or just to enjoy a trip overseas. What are your thoughts on this?

A: It is not a fair judgment. There may be one or two people in that category. However, all others are working very hard. I am very proud of their work. During the height of the pandemic, our officers in the foreign Missions worked tirelessly to secure COVID vaccines for Sri Lanka and to send stranded Lankans back home. Also, they managed to collect aid for us from the diaspora communities and wealthy people living in affluent countries and more importantly representing Sri Lanka at various multilateral fora safeguarding Sri Lanka’s national interests.

To stop malpractices, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given me clear instructions not to allow extensions to any diplomatic officer beyond three years. I found that some officers were out of the country for over nine/10 years having taken cross-postings.

The President believes that if an officer does not return and work in Sri Lanka, he or she would not be able to get a clear picture of the country’s situation.

Accordingly, I have implemented the instructions with an efficacy rate of 99 percent so far. Some high-ranking diplomatic officers, especially those working in western countries are requesting extensions, but I regret my inability to allow that. There was a misconception that Missions in western countries are the best. In our view, countries close to our country are the most important. We will have a proper rotation pattern.

Q: Even after 73 years of independence, we are still a developing country.

Economy wise we are in a very bad state. How can our foreign missions help improve the country’s situation?

A: We are not a nation that accepts defeat easily. We managed to survive during and after 30-years of war and overcame the Tsunami disaster by uniting as one country. We have had a beating on our economy because of COVID 19. We were hard hit by the lack of remittances from our overseas workers and the adverse effects on the tourism sector.

We are very good with international political diplomacy, but from this year, we will pay more attention to economic diplomacy. For example, sometimes, I am rather intrigued as to whether the High Commissioners and Ambassadors working in Sri Lanka are businessmen. They always talk about an investment or a business. So, we instructed our diplomats to secure more investments to Sri Lanka and also to expand our export basket. We cannot only rely on tea, rubber and coconut anymore.

Q: After Brexit, Britain is fast signing Free Trade Agreements with non-EU countries. Is this not the best time for us to sign an FTA with Britain?

A: It is Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris’ view that we should sign Free Trade Agreements (FTA). We do not even have an FTA with China. After signing the FTA with Singapore, some parties were fearful of whether other countries would take our jobs, whether they will dump their waste on us and so on. We cannot keep taking loans from China, India and Bangladesh forever. My belief is that in the future we must have FTAs with other countries and build a strong business consortium.

Q: In a recent interview with the Sunday Island, MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam stated that overseas Tamils have money and they could help develop Sri Lanka in five years. We can see that the Tamil diaspora have a substantial amount of wealth. Are you not prepared to have a dialogue with them?

Definitely, we certainly want to engage with all Sri Lanka diaspora groups. Even the President is planning to have an audience with Sri Lankan expatriate groups and invite them to come and invest in Sri Lanka. Lord Ahmad who visited Sri Lanka recently also discussed the importance of getting the Sri Lanka diaspora engaged and we requested him to mediate.

It is important that we unite and should not divide ourselves into Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher diasporas separately. It should be one Sri Lankan diaspora. I expect our Missions abroad to bring them together and currently, our High Commissioner in Ottawa is doing that.

There is a misconception that if a Tamil expatriate returns to Sri Lanka he would face problems. There is no such danger. Even a member of TGTE came to Sri Lanka recently and he had the freedom to go anywhere in the country and go back. It is the duty of the Sri Lankan diaspora communities to invest in Sri Lanka and help the country.

Q: My Tamil friends say that they have no means to communicate with the government. Are you happy to meet with the Tamil people living in the UK?

A: Definitely. If you can organize it, we are happy to meet with them anywhere or I would like to welcome them to Sri Lanka for a discussion.

Q: Lord Ahmad visited Sri Lanka recently to sign a MOU with regard to health service workers. What I have noticed this time was that he did not blame Sri Lanka on human rights conduct.

A: Our Foreign Minister and the Foreign Service worked hard to show the world the amount of work carried out by us to facilitate the reconciliation process. I am proud to say that we are winning the battle. We do not give empty promises anymore and we show the world what we have done so far to address the problem. We don’t want only to talk about missing persons anymore. We intend to identify them and compensate. If we find any person that could not reclaim his or her land we want to sort it out expeditiously.

I am happy to announce that the amendments for the Prevention of

Terrorism Act are being made now. The Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense and the Chamber of the Attorney General are working closely together to find solutions. The President is planninsg to have discussions with the TNA soon. We should meet in Sri Lanka and sort out whatever remaining problems we have.

Right now, we are arguing our cases in Geneva or in New York. I am happy to quote Lord Ahmad’s remarks to the effect that they only expect ‘pragmatic and practical solutions to the ongoing problems. We implement solutions as far as practically possible. We do not want any foreign power to set up any special mechanism and argue the case. We will not agree to the special mechanism imposed by the Human Rights Commission.