In Sri Lanka, after Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power, the pundits of International Relations were of the view that the island country will once again align itself with China, defying all the efforts made by the Indian government.
However, the Indian government under PM Modi and foreign minister S Jaishankar were too smart to get carried away by pundits and carried out all efforts to improve relations with the newly elected government. And the results of the efforts made by the Modi government are visible, as the Sri Lankan government is asking India for help in the fight against Coronavirus, and not China.
The island country has asked for 400 million dollars bilateral debt swap facility to RBI- the central bank of India- to boost its foreign reserves. This is a big win for India, as Sri Lanka did not choose China for foreign exchange reserves of 3 trillion dollars- equivalent to GDP of India for 2019- for the bilateral currency swap.
The proposal was made Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the head of Rajapaksa family and de facto ruler of the country. Given the fact Mahinda, who was ardently pro-China in the last tenure, has now decided to sail along with India, there is no doubt that Modi government has been immensely successful in maintaining, in fact improving, the ties with the Sri Lankan government despite the regime change. How the government turned the table in its favour despite regime change is a textbook case of good diplomacy.
Sri Lanka has been hit badly by the virus, having 373 infected people so far, which has completely destroyed the economy. Sri Lanka is primarily dependent on tourists for the foreign exchange reserves and with tourism industry ravaged by the Coronavirus; the island country has very little foreign exchange left.
Sri Lanka could have gone to China for help amid the dwindling foreign exchange reserves, but its experience with China was too bad in the last few years. China occupied the Hambantota port after the island country could not pay back the loans, and therefore, the Rajapaksa government is not willing to risk the sovereignty of the country by dealing with China over such critical issues.
Moreover, China and its diplomats have been very undiplomatic and uncivil in dealing with Sri Lanka amid the pandemic. Previously Twitter account of the Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka was suspended due to undiplomatic language used by the handle.
A Twitter user, for example, said, “The low class authoritarian Chinese government that was a curse to the Chinese people, became a curse to the world.” And this infuriated the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka which resorted to utterly unparliamentary language, while replying, “Total death in #China #pandemic is 3344 till today, much smaller than your western “high class” governments. Who are cursed?”
The low class authoritarian Chinese government that was a curse to the Chinese people, became a curse to the world.. thats the reality @ChinaEmbSL must understand. #Stand #Against #The #LowClass #Chinese #Government #lka
— Chirantha Amerasinghe (@chirantha7777) April 9, 2020
Not even stinging editorials in op-ed magazines resort to such blatantly offensive and sarcastic language that China’s “un-diplomatic” diplomatic mission in Sri Lanka used on its official Twitter handle.
Not many knew about the official status of the unverified Twitter handle and the microblogging platform banned the handle of the diplomatic mission for using un-diplomatic language.
From the Sri Lanka government’s decision to go with India for bilateral currency swap agreement instead of financially better placed China, it is very much evident that it is not ready to deal with the dragon on critical issues. This where the India, trustworthy ally of the island nation for decades, comes forward with helping hand.