Sri Lanka has begun sending out strong signals of aligning with India in a post-pandemic world, as countries seek to distance themselves from China and its proxies. After swinging between India and China for years on end, Colombo seems to have understood lately that democratic countries around the world must embrace the new world order emerging in the aftermath of the destruction caused by the Chinese COVID-19 pandemic.
In a matter of days, the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led government of Sri Lanka has indicated that New Delhi is the only friend in the region which the island country can trust. This is why it has royally snubbed Pakistan’s puppet Prime Minister Imran Khan, and also rejected fake Covid vaccines made in China.
Imran Khan landed in Sri Lanka on Tuesday evening, where he was scheduled to address the country’s parliament. However, the same address was cancelled by the Sri Lankan government at the very last moment, leaving Imran Khan embarrassed about the humiliation accorded to him on a state visit to Colombo.
According to a report titled ‘Sri Lanka avoids clash with India by cancelling Khan’s Parliament speech’ by Dar Javed published in the Colombo Gazette, the Rajapaksa government could not risk its relations with India when it is getting stuck in the Chinese debt-trap.
Already reported by TFI, “giving an opportunity to the Pakistani prime minister could have been implied as giving Khan parity to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so the planned speech was cancelled,” the Sri Lankan ‘Express’ quoted sources as saying.
Read more: The fear of PM Modi makes Sri Lanka stop Imran Khan from addressing their parliament
Imran Khan was expected to rake the issue of supposed ‘Islamophobia’ in Sri Lanka, particularly among the country’s Buddhist populace. Apart from that, as is normal for the Pakistani PM, rants against India were also expected during his address to the Lankan parliament. However, with the cancellation of his address in its entirety, Sri Lanka has successfully snubbed Pakistan and made its intentions of getting closer than ever before to India known.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka cannot thank India enough for gifting it with 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines – free of cost under New Delhi’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. The supply of such vaccines had helped Sri Lanka kickstart its immunisation programme, and now, the country has decided to dump Chinese vaccines lock, stock and barrel. Instead, Colombo has placed an order for 10 million Covishield doses, being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
Ramesh Pathirana, who is also the Minister of Plantations, said Sri Lanka is likely to go only with the AstraZeneca vaccines for the second phase of vaccination as the Chinese and Russian vaccines are not ready yet. “The Chinese vaccine has not submitted the papers relating to phase three trials,” Pathirana said.
For Sri Lanka – historically seen as a friend of China, to entirely reject Chinese vaccines is a diplomatic disaster for Xi Jinping, who has in any case entangled Colombo in his impenetrable web of debt traps.
For the first round of vaccinations, the Sri Lankan government has placed an order for 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India at a cost of USD 52.5 million and a further 3.5 million doses directly from AstraZeneca Institute of UK under the COVAX programme. No orders have been placed with China since their fake vaccines are evidently unsafe, unreliable and come with multiple riders – such as recipient nations prostrating before the CCP.
Countries around the world are rejecting Chinese jabs even before trying them out while turning to India with the hope that the pharmacy of the world, as the country is often called, will alleviate their pandemic woes and help life get back to normal. India has sent COVID-19 vaccines under grant assistance to Sri Lanka and seven other countries – Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles, Afghanistan and Mauritius.
Although Sri Lanka’s move to reject the Chinese vaccine is a step in the right direction, Colombo must walk a long road to completely win the trust of India.