“The problem facing Sri Lanka is manifold. On the one hand, it is internally weakened and on the other hand it happens to be the neighbour of India – a dominant military giant with perceptible hegemonic designs. Sri Lankan problem further worsens by the fact that it adjoins the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. India has been helping Sri Lanka on its fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) by providing training opportunities to the members of Sri Lankan armed forces.”_________________________________
by Syeda Qurat Ul Ain
(May 02, Lahore, Sri Lanka Guardian) Common borders, faith and culture are enabling factors that facilitate inter-state ties. These are, however, neither necessary nor sufficient elements. Relations between a Muslim Pakistan and a communist China, a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka and a Muslim Iran, a Hindu India and a Christian Russia underscore this point.
Two factors that determine the potential and progress of inter-state relations are ‘compulsions’ and ‘conditions’. Palpability of situation, emanating from mutual distrust and induction of weapons of mass destruction has possibly made this region the most tension-ridden and insecure. These causes continue to haunt professors of peace the world over.
In recent days, exchange of high level delegation between Iran and Sri Lanka has opened a new door of scepticism for India. In response to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tour to Iran in November last year, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was scheduled to visit Sri Lanka. It is not a customary development insofar as India is concerned. Indian think tanks have started throwing full venom against the emerging relations between these two states.
Sri Lanka is a centuries-old Indian Ocean state, which has retained its entity and enjoyed sovereignty in various forms through the years of its existence as a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual plural society. Of late, it caught up in a quagmire of internal ethnic strife that has hitherto claimed innumerable precious lives, weakened its ideological composition and built quite a bad image across the globe.
The problem facing Sri Lanka is manifold. On the one hand, it is internally weakened and on the other hand it happens to be the neighbour of India – a dominant military giant with perceptible hegemonic designs. Sri Lankan problem further worsens by the fact that it adjoins the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. India has been helping Sri Lanka on its fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) by providing training opportunities to the members of Sri Lankan armed forces. It also assisted Sri Lanka by sending Indian Peacekeeping Contingent (IPKC) in 1980s, which could not deliver as a peacekeeping force and was rather seen with reservations by the Lankan populace. Finally, the IPKC had to go back against the Indian desire.
Being a small and relatively poor nation, Sri Lanka cannot afford to be self-sufficient in defence production and training facilities in order to support its armed forces and their operations against the notorious LTTE. It has to even import bullets of a pistol. Hence, it has to look towards other countries for the purpose. As for India, it considers Sri Lanka to be a pawn at the chessboard of Indian Ocean’s politics and wishes Sri Lanka to keep moving under Indian tutelage. It does support Sri Lanka but only to the extent that it fulfils the Indian designs.
With others, Sri Lanka has been supported by Pakistan at a number of critical junctures and in a number of ways. For instance, Pakistan has been providing defence equipment on credit. Besides, Sri Lankan officers keep attending professional course in Pakistan army’s training institutions. Hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers have passed out from Pakistan Military Academy and the erstwhile Officers’ Training School. Most of them have attended courses in arms/services schools of instructions. This all has remained to be a point of contention between India and Sri Lanka, even though Pakistan has no hegemonic designs and has been supporting Sri Lanka merely to extend goodwill to a friendly SAARC state.
To be compatible with its defence needs, Sri Lanka has looked towards Iran whose response has been positive. Iran has agreed to extend low-interest credit to Sri Lanka for purchase of defence equipment from Pakistan and China – all to the annoyance of India. News reports suggest that Iran has also agreed to extend training facility to Sri Lanka for its military officers. Besides, the Iranian president is likely to inaugurate an Iranian sponsored $ 450 million hydroelectricity project in Sri Lanka’s Monaragala district. Iran is also expected to expand its investment in the field of oil refinery in Sri Lanka to the tune of $ 1 billion, aimed at increasing the production of Sri Lanka’s oil refinery from 50,000 to 100,000 barrels per day.
Iran has also agreed to train the Sri Lankan Army and Intelligence officers in Iran. A team of about 10 officers has already proceeded to Iran for training. Sri Lanka has already shared with Iranian Intelligence the manuals of Israeli equipment purchased by it in the past. Sri Lankan steps of moving towards Iran have crafted sufficient wrinkles on the enraged forehead of India. It goes without saying that in the backdrop of developing Indian strategic relations with the US, India has visibly distanced itself from Iran. Indian strategists do not want to see Iran develop nuclear weapons and they are wary of Iranian policy towards Pakistan. In spite of apparent positive gestures they continued to oppose the Iranian nuclear weapons programme.
Bitter relations between Iran and Israel are yet another thorn in the side of Indo-Iranian relations. All apart, aiding Sri Lanka, the state India regards as a personal property, has enraged the Indian polity. It is not only annoyed with Sri Lanka but even Iran. To deter Iran-Sri Lanka ties developing into a multi-faced concrete bond, India has demonstrated a high degree of politico-diplomatic imbalance. While India is indirectly exerting pressure on Iran and further maligning it to the extent possible in Euro-American communities, it has taken the tiny state of Sri Lanka head on. Events and expressions suggest that India has even threatened Sri Lanka of grave consequences if it continues with its pursuit to strengthen its economy and defence forces. A news report suggests that Sri Lanka had a direct rebuff from Israel on its expanding relations with Iran. Israel has warned Colombo that this relationship could come in the way of supply and sale of Israeli equipment to Sri Lanka in future.
The developed world needs to consider the predicament of Sri Lanka that is facing the infamous and brutal terrorist organisation. As for Iran, it needs to recognise the true face of India. It needs to realise that India will never like Iran to develop relations even with a peace-seeking tiny island state like Sri Lanka in order to completely isolate it on the globe.
India-Iran relations have come under renewed strain following the launch of Israeli spy satellite to monitor the activities of Iran. For Iran, the case of Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipelines and the changing Indian expressions during the last couple of years were enough to see the true face of India. Pak-Iran relations are marked by frequent contacts at highest level. Cooperation between Pakistan and Iran in various areas like trade and commerce, science and technology, defence, arts and culture, tourism, communications, oil and gas, etc., has been improving steadily.
The emergence of a unipolar world has nearly made every nation review its security imperatives. Clearly, the extent to which defence cooperation can develop will also be linked to the perceptions that the two countries will evolve on matters of national security and geo-politics.
(The writer is doing her masters in International Relations from University of the Punjab, Lahore)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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