Wickremesinghe should know: Sri Lanka has nothing to gain by declaring support to China

By NS Venkataraman*
There appears to be a unanimous view in Sri Lanka and other countries that appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe as President of Sri Lanka is the best decision that has happened in the present turbulent time in Sri Lanka. Ranil Wickremesinghe has served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka six times and he has not completed full term even once and is not generally recognised as an exceptional administrator. However, he has been recognised as a reliable and decent and least controversial person by popular view and that is perhaps why governance of Sri Lanka has been handed over to him. Except a few professional demonstrators in Sri Lanka, the country is, by and large, willing to support him if he would take appropriate policy decisions and implement them in a pragmatic way. This is a good situation as far as it goes.
Obviously, the priority for Ranil Wickremesinghe is to retrieve Sri Lankan economy from the present mess, which implies that he should ensure that the morale of the countrymen are kept high by announcing time bound, proactive and well reasoned economic and industrial development plans and creating confidence about his leadership capabilities in the present challenging time.
In such situation, even the pledged admirers of Ranil Wickremesinghe felt uncomfortable, when Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Parliament that “Sri Lanka is bankrupt”, which has created huge fear amongst people. While fact is that Sri Lanka faces extremely difficult financial conditions, it has a lot of residual and basic strength which need to be highlighted and told to the people, instead of saying that the country is bankrupt. Some people wonder whether this statement of the President could reflect on his own confidence level.
Today, what Sri Lanka needs urgently is financial support by way of loan and grant from international funding agencies as well as USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and European countries. Apart from financial support at this critical juncture, Sri Lanka also needs technology support, trade support and overseas investment.
With such compulsive needs where western countries dominated funding agencies and western countries alone can come to Sri Lanka’s aid in quick time and in meaningful way, it is surprising that President Wickremesinghe made a statement that Sri Lanka is firmly committed to one China policy. This statement of the Sri Lankan President is considered as unwarranted and avoidable by many observers , as this would clearly create suspicion about the foreign policy leanings of Sri Lankan government, particularly amongst western countries.
At the present juncture, Sri Lanka has nothing to gain by declaring its support to China by committing to one China policy. At best, the President should have kept quiet on the matter.
In the family rule of Rajapaksa, there is widespread view that the Rajapaksa government has fallen into debt trap laid by China for whatever reasons and in the process, being forced to hand over the Hambentota port to China. This is a tragic mistake amounting to opening an intruder into the country. China will never give up it’s control over Hambentota port anytime in future and will have a permanent presence in Sri Lanka. The recent move of China to send spy ship to Hambentota port is an indication to the state of things to come. Though the Sri Lankan government has feebly told China to defer the ship visit, it did not have the courage to ask China to cancel the visit once for all. This approach of Sri Lanka government indicates that there is still certain level of ambiguity and uncertainty in it’s foreign policy approach.
Sri Lanka is a democratic country and it has to necessarily align itself with western countries for a stable future. It has to model it’s foreign policy in the way that countries like South Korea Philippines, Singapore, Australia and Japan have done by maintaining close alliance with western countries and all these countries have gained and prospered by such policy approach. Sri Lanka can formulate it’s foreign policy in this direction without overtly declaring so.
Development of friendly relations with western countries can only ensure sustained economic progress for Sri Lanka and enable Sri Lanka to retrieve itself from its present economic mess.
The relations with the countries like China, Russia can all be on near silent mode and without being antagonistic towards them.

In the present juncture, Sri Lanka cannot have the luxury of commenting on every international issue which really does not concern Sri Lanka. Self interest is the only policy that Sri Lanka needs today.
---
*Trustee, Nandini Voice For The Deprived, Chennai

Comments

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

The selective memory of a violent city: Uttam Nagar and the invisible victims of Delhi

By Sunil Kumar* Hundreds of murders take place in Delhi every year, yet only a few incidents become topics of nationwide discussion. The question is: why does this happen? Today, the incident in Uttam Nagar has become the centre of national debate. A 26-year-old man, Tarun Kumar, was killed following a dispute that reportedly began after a balloon hit a small child. In several colonies of Delhi, slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram” are being raised while demanding the death penalty for Tarun’s killers. As a result, nearly 50,000 residents of Hastsal JJ Colony are now living in what resembles a state of confinement.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog