Sri Lanka's Foreign and Security Policy: The Challenge of Terrorism'

ddress made by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, on 'Sri Lanka's Foreign and Security Policy: the challenge of terrorism' at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London on 08th March, 2007.

I am extremely happy to have this opportunity to speak at the IISS which is well known internationally for its contribution towards deepening our understanding of defence and security related issues in today's world.

My predecessors have held the work of your institute in high esteem and today we have established a similar institution in Sri Lanka named after one of my distinguished predecessors, the late Lakshman Kadirgamar.

I take this opportunity to record our appreciation for the valuable advice by the IISS when we were taking the first steps in seeking to establish our institute.

At the outset may I thank Dr. Patrick Cronin, Director of Studies for the kind introduction and also Dr. John Chipman, the Director-General and Rahul Chaudhury for inviting me and arranging this event.

Sri Lanka's Foreign Policy in the first decade after independence was largely influenced by the Post World War environment of reconstruction, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.

In the Cold War era that followed our leaders at that time favoured non-alignment with the objective of consolidating our newly regained independence and breaking away from the shackles of imperialism.

The closure of British military bases at Katunayake and the port city of Trincomalee was also aimed at manifesting our commitment to this policy.

Our non-alignment however, did not prevent us from constructive engagement with those very power blocs of the cold war period. We especially played an active role in multilateral foray as a founding member of the Non-aligned Movement and in the United Nations.

However, as a developing country with a growing population our primary focus in the decades that followed was trade and economic relations. Obviously it remains in our interests to ensure that the fruits of economic progress are distributed as equitably as possible to all corners of our country as this would help create a domestically stable environment.

Prof. F. S. Northedge in his book - "The Foreign Policies of the Power" - states that the Foreign Policy of any country is a product of environment factors both internal and external to it.

In this context Sri Lanka's proximity to the vast sub-continent of India on its northern flank and our vulnerability on the southern flank, given that there is no land mass from the south of the island straight down to the South Pole are key factors that have shaped our Foreign and Security Policy.

Maritime security becomes a key factor for an island that is as strategically located as we are. Prof. Joseph Frankell in his treatise "The Making of Foreign Policy" expands on this by stating that the Foreign Policy of any government simultaneously will seek two inter-related objectives: enhance national security and greater economic development.

This brings me to the main focus of my presentation and that is the challenge of terrorism which has hampered to pursuit of our priorities in the last two decades.

The violent terrorist activities of the LTTE in Sri Lanka which is known worldwide to have pioneered the lethal art of suicide attacks against civilians now being copied by the al-Qaeda network and instilling a similar culture in innocent children has posed a serious challenge to our national security.

The LTTE being steeped in violence has resulted in the loss of over 60,000 lives. In May 1991 an LTTE suicide bomber assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Yet another suicide bomber in 1993 assassinated Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

In January 1996 they conducted a suicide mission on the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and a year later yet another similar mission occurred on Sri Lanka's holiest temple - the Temple of the Buddha's Tooth Relic in Kandy.