New Delhi: Sri Lanka will not allow any country to use it as a pawn to “threaten India’s security”, and the moratorium on research ships docking at the island nation’s ports — a big concern for New Delhi over the years — is against all countries’ vessels, Tharaka Balasuriya, State Minister of Foreign Affairs, has told ThePrint in an exclusive interaction.
“We have put a moratorium on all research vehicles from every country. As one of your foreign secretaries mentioned, he sees Sri Lanka as an aircraft carrier off the coast of India. Which I agree with,” he asserted.
Balasuriya was in India Thursday and Friday for the BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers’ Retreat hosted by New Delhi.
“We want to ensure that the Indians are quite secure in their thinking that Sri Lanka will not be used by China or any other country to threaten India’s security… as far as surveillance goes, we are developing our own capabilities,” he added.
In August 2022 and October 2023, two Chinese vessels — Yuan Wang 5 and Shiyan 6 — had docked at the Sri Lankan ports of Hambantota and Colombo, respectively. The ships, while classified as “research vessels”, can collect information that has dual purpose — civilian and military — and are considered to be spy vessels. The Yuan Wang 5, for example, can track ballistic missiles and satellite launches.
In November 2022, days before a planned missile test by India, the Yuan Wang 6, another “research vessel”, entered the Indian Ocean. The planned test was cancelled and rescheduled for a later date.
In late 2023, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had raised the issue of docking permission for such vessels with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, according to media reports.
“As I mentioned, we are very careful to make sure that India’s security is not threatened by other countries and Sri Lanka is not used as a pawn,” Balasuriya told ThePrint.
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‘BIMSTEC’s key component is political will’
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was established in 1997 by Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand as the BIST-EC.
In its 27 years of operation, the organisation has slowly expanded its membership to include Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan, while also slowly creating institutional mechanisms. In May 2024, the BIMSTEC charter came into effect, two years after it was first signed in 2022.
The coordination amongst BIMSTEC members has increased, coinciding with the slow deactivation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) — an earlier political-regional forum.
“The key component is political will. SAARC did not succeed because I think there wasn’t enough political will for it to succeed. Whereas with BIMSTEC, there is enough political will from all the seven countries for it to succeed. As long as there is political will, that can be put into action,” said Balasuriya.
SAARC, founded in 1985, has eight members — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Since 2014, no summit has been held by its members, which has led to questions about the future of the forum.
BIMSTEC does not have Pakistan as a member. Relations among all its members are considered to be cordial.
During his opening remarks at the foreign ministers’ retreat Thursday, Jaishankar termed BIMSTEC as “a grouping that is so complimentary and so congenial in its membership should surely harbour higher aspirations”.
Balasuriya said that Sri Lanka is in discussions with Bangladesh for a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Thailand — an indication of the intention to deepen ties among BIMSTEC members.
‘Not out of the woods’ on debt situation
The Sri Lankan State Minister emphasised that while the nation’s economy was mostly “back to normal”, the nation is “not out of the woods” after the economic crisis of 2022.
“We have restructured our debts. Now we have a little bit of breathing space, and during this breathing space we need to go for things such as new revenue streams. Until 2028, we have some space… this is only the start,” Balasuriya told ThePrint.
The country faced its worst balance of payments crisis in 2022, which led to India stepping with almost $4 billion in aid.
In June 2024, it was able to negotiate a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its creditors for the restructuring of its debt. India was a chair of the Official Creditors Committee along with Japan and France.
The 2022 economic crisis had led to a political crisis in the island nation, which saw then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign. Wickremesinghe was appointed in his place and will remain in office until elections scheduled for later this year.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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