Notable foreign policy triumph

Two heavyweights in global affairs, Australia and India, have clearly and emphatically confirmed that the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be held in Sri Lanka in 2013, as already decided, and that this decision will stand. This is clear proof that Sri Lanka is commanding the respect of important sections of the international community and that the baseless criticisms leveled against it in some quarters are failing to carry any weight. In other words, a substantial proportion of world opinion is with Sri Lanka, despite the anti-Sri Lanka mill working overnight.

One of the most important messages these developments convey is that Sri Lanka's foreign policy, in its thinking and implementation, is proving highly successful currently. A considerable proportion of the credit for this success, we believe, should accrue to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, who have been sparing no pains over the past few months to enlighten world opinion on the issues at present confronting Sri Lanka. They have underscored, in no uncertain terms, the insubstantial nature of the anti-Lanka propaganda currently being spewed by the LTTE rump and its supporters. For these purposes, the President and his External Affairs Minister have gone more than the extra mile and we believe their efforts must be appreciated.

Along with this development, we have had the Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai going on record that his country would be opposing the proposal of introducing what has been referred to as a Human Rights and Rule of Law monitor for the Commonwealth countries. The Foreign Secretary quite rightly pointed out that what should be uppermost in the minds of the Commonwealth is development, since this is the preoccupation of the vast majority of the people of the world. In fact, there could be no trade-off between development and rights.

Development enhances rights of the people and vice versa. But there could be no lopsided emphasis on rights at the expense of development. Focusing disproportionately on rights, is a Western tendency that would run counter to the general interests of the majority of the people in the developing world, for whom material advancement is of prime importance. Accordingly, it is in the fitness of things that India should remind the West about these home truths.

But there is no room for complacency on these and related issues. The hard work expended in moulding international opinion in our favour has to continue and very vibrantly. The vast majority of developing countries, some of which are in the Commonwealth fold, see eye-to-eye with us on national priorities. One of the latter is uninterrupted development and we need to persist on this path consistently and collectively.

Therefore, bridges that exist between us and the rest of the developing world need to be strengthened and if new bridges need to be built, this task too must be attended to with the greatest urgency. In fact, the time has come for stepped-up co-operation among Third World countries because it is plain to see that sections of the developed countries are persisting on a foreign policy path which is at cross purposes with that of the developing countries. The need of the hour is equitable development and a world economic order which would facilitate this, but this is not the point of view of the foremost Western powers.

So, we need to have a greater in-gathering of minds among the developing countries. Ideally, Third World organizations, such as the Non-aligned Movement, must be rejuvenated and rendered vibrant. The developing countries must work collectively and hard towards furthering their legitimate interests and this must be prime on the foreign policy agendas of Third World countries.

If countries such as Sri Lanka are being compelled to face thorny foreign policy issues, it is because the developing countries are not bringing together their collective power to counter-balance the might of the First World. Therefore, the struggle by the developing countries to redress the power imbalance between the First and Third Worlds must continue.