{"id":55102,"date":"2017-09-11T03:31:05","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T07:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55102"},"modified":"2017-09-11T03:31:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T07:31:26","slug":"sri-lanka-does-not-need-to-become-another-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55102","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Does Not Need To Become Another South China Sea!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By
\nLasanda Kurukulasuriya<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) held at Temple Trees recently, organized by the India Foundation, was billed as a gathering of IOR countries and \u2018other concerned nations\u2019 with a view to advancing \u2018Peace, Progress and Prosperity\u201d in the Indian Ocean. While this is no doubt a laudable goal, the absence of perspectives from regional players like China and Pakistan points to somewhat more partisan objectives than those advertised. <\/p>\n

The delegate described as \u2018Principal, Ambassadors\u2019 LLC Group, China\u2019 was actually an American citizen, and while there was ambiguity as to the interests she represented it would be safe to surmise that she did not represent the People\u2019s Republic of China. However, the US, also an external power, was represented by its Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia, Alice Wells.
\nA post on the Conference\u2019s social media page points to objectives not revealed elsewhere. It describes the gathering as being \u201cpart of India\u2019s efforts to rejuvenate ties with IOR countries and increase its outreach in the region to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.\u201d The IOC\u2019s real purpose is candidly stated: \u201cThe event can be seen as an effort to counter China\u2019s growing influence in the IOR.\u201d <\/p>\n

India\u2019s worries over China\u2019s growing maritime footprint are shared by the US, resulting in converging interests in the IOR. \u201cGiven its economic downturn, the US seeks like-minded democracies in the Indo-Pacific region to balance China\u201d says Indian Ocean researcher Lindsay Hughes. \u201cIt has strong relationships with Australia, Japan and South Korea\u201d but \u201cIt lacks a similar partner in the eastern Indian Ocean …\u201d Referring to Washington\u2019s agreement with Delhi to share military facilities and its efforts to sign an intelligence-sharing agreement as well, this analyst says that a close partnership with India \u201csuits Washington\u2019s strategy of passing some of the responsibility for maintaining security in the Indian Ocean Region to regional partners.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wells in her Colombo address unequivocally asserted that \u201cthe United States is and would continue to be an Indo-Pacific power.\u201d It may be noticed that the terms \u2018Indo-Pacific\u2019 or \u2018Indo-Asia Pacific,\u2019 combining the two oceans as if they are a single entity, is increasingly used now by American officials. The terminology may be intended to make the increasing US assertiveness in the IOR seem \u2018normal\u2019 although the US lacks presence in the Indian Ocean comparable to its massive build-up in the Pacific theatre. The US\u2019s deepening ties with the Sri Lanka Navy in recent times are also worth noting in this context. At the conference, Alice Wells announced the first ever US-Sri Lanka naval exercise to be carried out in October (in Trincomalee, and to be conducted by the US\u2019s Seventh Fleet according to reports). <\/p>\n

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The US has increasingly referred to \u2018Freedom of Navigation and Over flight\u2019 in its rhetoric, seeking to enlist the support of partners in its enforcement. While in her speech Wells called on others to \u201cadhere to a common vision that respected international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention,\u201d it is ironic that the US itself has not acceded to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). All the same the US has been in the habit of challenging other states when they act in ways that the US believes pose a threat to \u2018freedom of navigation,\u2019 by sending its warships into the waters concerned. These \u2018Freedom of Navigation (FON) assertions by the US have dangerously racked up tensions with China in the South China Sea. In the latest incident reported last month, that the USS John S. McCain sailed within 12 nautical miles (the internationally recognized territorial limit) of Mischief Reef in the Spratly islands, causing Beijing to express displeasure over what it called an act of provocation. The incident took place in disputed waters where China\u2019s claims are contested by neighbours. The volatility of the situation is compounded by the fact that this was a time when China\u2019s help was being sought to defuse tensions with North Korea over its missile tests.<\/p>\n

Armitai Etzioni of The George Washington University, Washington DC says the US is acting, as it is often accused, as the world\u2019s policeman. \u201c .. as far as FONA (Freedom of Navigation Assertions) is concerned, the United States decides on its own which new restrictions introduced by any nation in the world are \u2018\u2018excessive,\u201d and what it considers the correct interpretation of international law and UNCLOS\u201d he said in a 2015 paper. \u201cAnd it unilaterally applies its military force ….. to enforce the rules. In short, in these matters the United States acts as accuser, judge, jury, and executioner.\u201d Etzioni warns that these types of actions add a security risk \u201cas they can quite readily escalate into dangerous clashes between the forces of the super powers.\u201d <\/p>\n

It is in this context of ambiguity as to the motives of various parties, that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe pledged at the IOC that Sri Lanka would take the lead in initiating a discussion \u201cto deliberate on a stable legal order on freedom of navigation and over flight in the Indian Ocean.\u201d In view of the US\u2019s eagerness to strengthen military ties with Sri Lanka, the question arises as to whether the US agenda of containing China has been taken on as well. The language used by India\u2019s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, by comparison, was more circumspect, and did not refer to \u2018freedom of navigation\u2019 but rather President Modi\u2019s vision of \u2018Security and Growth for All in the Region\u2019 (SAGAR). Given the prevailing tensions in the IOR Sri Lanka will need to beware of being used as the cat\u2019s paw of any big power in its games of brinkmanship \u2013 it does not need to become another South China Sea! <\/p>\n

Asked to comment, Palitha Kohona, former head of the UN Treaty Section in New York expressed the view that Sri Lanka must again take a high profile position in discussions relating to the oceans and the blue economy. Dr. Kohona was also Chair of the UN Sixth Committee (Legal), Chair of the UN Committee on Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction and Chair of the Indian Ocean Committee. He made this assertion \u201cgiven that Sri Lanka, with its 200-mile EEZ and potentially vast continental shelf would increasingly turn to the ocean for its future prosperity (fisheries, petroleum and mineral extraction, environmental protection, including coral reefs, dolphins and whales, migratory fish species, tourism, etc).\u201d On an optimistic note he added that Sri Lanka\u2019s input will be respected \u201cwhere the Convention on the Law of the Sea needs further elaboration or clarification, including in the formulation of codes.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, like many rules of international law, the provisions of the LOSC also tend to be interpreted to suit the convenience of those relying on them. Some major powers are not parties to the LOSC but subscribe to its provisions as reflecting customary international law – the US, Turkey and Venezuela among them\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily Mirror<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya The Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) held at Temple Trees recently, organized by the India Foundation, was billed as a gathering of IOR countries and \u2018other concerned nations\u2019 with a view to advancing \u2018Peace, Progress and Prosperity\u201d in the Indian Ocean. While this is no doubt a laudable goal, the absence of perspectives …<\/p>\n

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