Sri Lanka’s foreign policy since independence: Which leader did it best?

Cartoon by W.R. Wijesoma – Published 50 Years in Cartoon 1948-1977

By Chandani Kirinde

factum.lk: For a small island nation like Sri Lanka, tiding over the turbulent world of international relations hasn’t been an easy task since independence. Much of the success stories in foreign affairs has depended on the country’s leaders and the direction in which they have chosen to steer the nation. 

There are a few success stories such as J.R. Jayewardene’s famed speech at the San Francisco Peace Conference in 1951, Sri Lanka’s role in the Colombo Plan (1950)/Bandung Conference (1955) or the hosting the Non-Aligned Summit in Colombo in 1976. There have also been numerous diplomatic bunglings along the way which have cost the country heavily.

Despite Sri Lanka’s independence from British rule in 1948 after centuries of colonial rule, it remained well-entrenched in the British camp with defence and external affairs agreements accompanying the grant of independence. Sri Lanka also became one of the first countries to take up membership of the Commonwealth. 

Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake desired to have the goodwill of the British and saw the close links with the former coloniser as a safety net for the newly independent country. While his detractors were suspicious of continuing links in defence and external affairs with Britain, Senanayake saw the “psychological importance of a sense of belonging to a small country like Sri Lanka, both as a measure of protection and as an introduction to the world community,” veteran diplomat V.l.B. Mendis writes in his book ‘Foreign relations of Sri Lanka – From earliest times to 1965’.

The Soulbury Constitution which was in place at the time of independence combined defence and external affairs in one portfolio and vested their responsibility with the Prime Minister. “External affairs became a matter of personal taste or convenience of the Prime Minister, rather than of their intrinsic importance at a given time,” Mendis wrote.

When Dudley Senanayake succeeded his father D.S. Senanayake as Prime Minister in 1952, he had to deal with the economic woes that were besetting the newly independent country. The historic Rice-Rubber Agreement with China was signed in 1952 under which China agreed to purchase 50,000 tons of sheet rubber annually from the island in return for the supply of 270,000 tons of rice to Sri Lanka. This put Dudley Senanayake in direct confrontation with the USA which had imposed a ban on aid to countries doing trade with China as a result of the Korean war. This led to Sri Lanka losing out on vital US aid and illustrated the difficulty the country would face in balancing international relations.

Sir John Kotelawala succeeded Dudley Senanayake as Prime Minister in 1953. He was passionately anti-Communist and expressed his views unreservedly. He was eager to strengthen ties with Asia, which were neglected in the post-independence period but he continued the country’s allegiance to the Commonwealth. He initiated the Colombo Powers meeting, which was attended by a number of Asian leaders, and though not entirely a success story, it set the stage for the historic Asian-African Bandung Conference held in Indonesia in April 1955.

Kotelawala was defeated in the 1956 parliamentary elections. By then eight years had passed since the country’s independence but its foreign policy remained largely anchored with the Commonwealth with a little more emphasis on regional cooperation. However, major changes were on the way with the accession in 1956 of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike as Prime Minister. He was eager to veer the country on a drastically different path, both nationally and internationally.

As far back as 1952, Bandaranaike had advanced a policy of neutralism saying that Sri Lanka should occupy a position in Southeast Asia analogous to the position occupied by a country like Switzerland. “The idea that a small country in the context of world affairs today must of necessity lump itself into some particular power bloc is a fallacious theory,” Bandaranaike said in a speech as the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament in June 1952.

After his election, Bandaranaike reiterated his commitment to a neutral foreign policy defending himself from critics who said his policy was one of inactivity and non-commitment. In an address to the United Nations, Bandaranaike said, “We are committed to the hilt, to peace in a positive form, to friendship among all nations and to the peace and prosperity and happiness of all mankind.”

Bandaranaike was eager to break free from the grip of the British who retained a hold on the island despite granting independence in 1948 and soon after taking office, he reached an agreement to end British control of its bases in the country limiting facilities on the island to communication, storage and movement. Bandaranaike also gave notice of the desire of the country to become a republic, but this did not materialise in his lifetime and only happened in 1972.

Bandaranaike also moved to develop diplomatic ties with the socialist part of the world which had been considered taboo by his predecessors whose “diplomatic parameters had been confined to the West and its immediate neighbours,” Mendis wrote. He strengthened ties with China and became a steadfast supporter of the latter’s admission to the UN. In July 1957, Chinese Prime Minister Chou En Lai visited the country for the Buddha Jayanthi celebration, and this was seen as the beginning of a new chapter in relations between the two countries.

Bandaranaike’s tenure as Prime Minister came to an untimely end with his assassination in 1959 and it fell on the shoulders of his widow Sirimavo Bandaranaike to take his policy of neutralism forward, declare the country a republic and strengthen ties with the socialist world.

When Mrs. Bandaranaike was elected as the world’s first woman Prime Minister in 1960, her appearance on the world stage itself was a novelty. As her biographer Maureen Seneviratne wrote, “Mrs. Bandaranaike had the added benefit of having made her acquaintance with many prominent world leaders during her role as the wife of a Prime Minister including meeting with India’s Indira Gandhi and China’s Chou En Lai, all for which put her in a position of strength in the foreign affairs front.

“One of her major achievements in the field of diplomacy during her two terms as Prime Minister was the holding of the Non-Aligned Movement’s (NAM) Heads of State Meeting in Colombo in 1976.

“She was also the first leader to develop Sri Lanka relations with African states. She condemned South Africa’s policy of apartheid and appointed Sri Lanka’s first woman ambassador as her representative to the Republic of Ghana, the first African state to gain independence, then known as the listening post of Africa.”

“A major shift in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy came with the landslide victory for the United National Party (UNP) led by J.R. Jayewardene in 1977. He was known for his west leaning policies, (he had opposed the Rice-Rubber Pact with China and was referred to as ‘Yankee Dickie’ in political circles). He also did not think much of NAM and had made it clear during the election campaign that hosting the conference in Colombo was a waste of money and condemned what he saw as Mrs. Bandaranaike’s ‘excessive concern for foreign affairs at a time, when domestic policy, especially the state of the economy, should have taken precedence,” wrote K.M. de Silva, President Jayawardene’s biographer.

Jayewardene appointed A.C.S. Hameed as Minister of Foreign Affairs thus entrusting the subject to a separate minister for the first time since independence. The new Foreign Minister soon earned himself a reputation as a globetrotter with officials in the Ministry coining the phrase ‘All Countries Seen’ as substitute to his initials A.C.S but, as K.M. De Silva noted, this did not bother Jayewardene because when it came to important foreign policy decisions, he held onto the reins and bypassed Hameed.

Relations with Japan took on a new importance soon after Jayewardene took office with his role in the San Francisco Peace Conference paying dividends. He also developed a close understanding with Morarji Desai who was Prime Minister of India, akin to the close relationship between Mrs. Gandhi and Mrs. Bandaranaike.

However, the return of Mrs. Gandhi as Prime Minister in 1980 was the start of a difficult relationship between the two countries which remained so throughout the period the two leaders held office and continued when her son Rajiv Gandhi took office after her assassination in 1984. The younger Gandhi arm twisted Jayewardene into signing the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord in 1987 which made an unpopular President even more unpopular, one he didn’t recover from until his retirement from politics in 1989. 

Jayewardene treated the re-establishment and maintaining of good and constructive relationship with the west as a matter of prime importance. He did so, successfully securing economic aid from both UK and the USA and enjoying the rare fete of being hosted by US President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1984 where he was treated to a star-studded dinner with his favourite singer Frank Sinatra serenading him by singing his signature song ‘My Way’.

Under Ranasinghe Premadasa who succeeded Jayewardene, relations with India soured further after he sent the Indian Peace Keeping Forces that were stationed in the North and East of the country after the signing of the Accord packing. Premadasa had staunchly opposed the signing of the Accord and made no bones about his displeasure at the bullying by India of its southern neighbour. As Prime Minister in the Jayewardene government, Premadasa often represented the country at the UN and other international conferences and was a strong advocate for the declaration of an International Year of Shelter for the Homeless which became a reality in 1987. His short tenure as President was beset with too much internal turmoil that there was less focus on international relations.

With Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga becoming President in 1994, her choice of an international civil servant Lakshman Kadirgamar as foreign minister was hailed by many. With their combined personal charm, her government moved to re-establish friendly relations with India. She toured many of the important world capitals giving new impetus to the country’s foreign policy but also reverting to her parents’ policy of non-alignment, keen to be a global player but also eager not to align the country with any power bloc.

The country reaped the benefits of Kadirgamar’s convincing arguments making a case for Sri Lanka in the international arena which led to the ban of the LTTE by many countries while. He also successfully advocated the declaration of Vesak Day as a 

UN holiday.

Mahinda Rajapaksa who succeeded Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2005 moved ahead with a non-aligned approach to the country’s foreign policy strengthening links with Asian and African nations. A strong advocate for Palestine independence, Rajapaksa paid special attention to the Middle East which had become an economically important region to Sri Lanka with thousands of Sri Lankans employed there.

Rajapaksa sought and won the support of India which proved crucial as the Sri Lanka military fought the war with the LTTE to an end in 2009 but his cosying up to China during his second term in office from 2010-2015 drew the ire of both India and the USA. Rajapaksa’s Government began to face the wrath of western nations over failure to address human rights issues which strained relations with both the USA and the European Union.

With Maithripala Sirisena’s shock victory in the 2015 presidential election, the country was hailed as a success story for democracy and the doors of the Western world once again opened and the country began to reap its economic benefits. Sri Lanka also committed to the UN to address human rights issues and made some positive progress in that area but with the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President in 2019, the ground got shaky under the country’s relations with the West.

The decision to withdraw from the resolution at the United Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which Sri Lanka had co-sponsored under the Sirisena government as well as antagonistic polices towards Muslims in the country alienated some of the country’s staunchest of allies in the Middle East and Muslim majority countries. The continuing policy of relying heavily on China has also left both India and the USA bewildered and these countries, along with the countries in the European Union (EU) continue to tighten the noose around the country wherever an opportunity presents itself.

With shifting power blocs and changing geo-political interests, Sri Lanka continues to run the gauntlet trying to balance relations with different world powers. The absence of a cohesive and consistent foreign policy makes this more challenging, and the country loses out, unable to reap the full benefits of the unique geographical position it occupies in the world. 

(Source: https://factum.lk/regional-geopolitics/factum-perspective-sri-lankas-foreign-policy-since-independence-which-leader-did-it-best/)

(The writer is senior political and history columnist and a long-serving parliamentary correspondent in Sri Lanka. She can be reached via [email protected].)