Defence and Diplomacy are linked

Dr Sarala Fernando

Defence expenditure  has not been a subject of public discussion in Sri Lanka, which was understandable during the difficult years of the armed conflict. Even after the armed conflict ended , there was no public opposition to the continued dedication of a major share of budgetary resources to the Defence Ministry to spearhead the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the conflict- affected areas in the North and East.

Since that time, the Army has provided leadership in a number of areas of interest to the UN. For example, the de-mining programe clearing thousands of acres for the safe return of civilians, has created positive publicity for Sri Lanka and enabled the signing of related international agreements, all contributing to building the image of a responsible military on international fora.

Since deploying its first contingent in 1958, official press releases remind that Sri Lanka has been contributing to UN Peacekeeping operations in some of its most hostile and demanding deployments, and has 557 including female officers currently in service toward ensuring international peace and security. Our authorities should also revive the initiative to collect illegal small arms and light weapons island-wide under the UN SALW (Small Arms and Light Weapons) programme. This will address concerns over rising gun crime and discourage new domestic gun manufacturing.

Since the end of the armed conflict, Sri Lankans have waited patiently over a decade now for the peace dividend in the hope that it would enable more robust social expenditure. Now that Sri Lanka has declared bankruptcy and opted to go to that “lender of last resort”, several articles are appearing commenting on down sizing of the military, re-balancing the three forces in view of current and emerging threats etc, based on some expectation that limits would be imposed on defence expenditure under the IMF programme.

In such a historical context and given the experience and assets within the security forces, it is to be expected that any strategic planning for “right sizing” the defence budget, would be undertaken in-house within the security forces. This article suggests that the Foreign Ministry with its research and training arms, the Lakshman Kadirgarmar Institute (LKI) and the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute (BIDTI) should also be involved in these discussions. Any re-shaping of defence strategy would benefit from the perspectives of diplomacy especially in relation to developments in the wider world, some of which are mentioned in this article.

From the initial public statements by the Defence Ministry it seems the emphasis has been on troop reduction. The Deputy Minister of Defence announced recently that the Ministry planned to reduce the number of soldiers from the current strength of 200,783 to 135,000 by 2024. Is this to be achieved through creation of a reserve as some academics have suggested? The Air Force has just announced a strength reduction from 35,000 to 27,000 including a policy to increase its female share to 30%.

However, in this exercise, to avoid confusion, public diplomacy would call for the holding back of all media advertisements for new recruitment to the armed forces. There are lessons to be learned also from elsewhere: the recent initiative to reduce the public service through a scheme to grant five years no-pay leave abroad, has predictably led to the departure of the most talented and capable, leaving Ministries in a quandary to retrain those remaining behind who are demoralized, compounding human resources management problems. It is also worth noting that Sri Lanka is reducing its trained forces at a time when some developed countries are facing recruitment problems to their forces and offering many incentives even to foreign nationals.

Our Deputy Minister of Defence also referred to a “strategic blueprint” aiming to produce “a technically and tactically sound and well-balanced defense force by the year 2030 in order to meet upcoming security challenges”. Such a strategic plan would be a new and welcome development however the question remains how other Ministries, concerned institutions and a public consultation would be factored into the in-house deliberations.

Any such strategic planning should take into account that Sri Lanka is probably unique in that it is recognized internationally as particularly vulnerable for a country of our size and geography, being exposed to both man-made and natural disasters. This calls for any national security strategy to take a two prong approach. With regard to conflict prevention, having faced two youth insurrections which had to be put down by lethal force, one cannot over emphasize the importance of strengthening human intelligence gathering and early warning.

This task is never easy due to the difficulty of coordinating intelligence agencies with differing mandates, as even the United States learned after 9/11. Recent arrests in Tamil Nadu of persons charged with attempting to revive the LTTE insurgency confirmed the need for continued vigilance on the arms and drug smuggling networks which we had thought had been dismantled after the end of the armed conflict. As an island nation with a huge expanse of coastal territory to monitor, the armed forces need to integrate air, sea and land operations for maritime protection and seizure of arms, ammunition, explosives and detonators and a never ending flow of drugs.

Early warning is even more problematic with regard to natural disasters as major climate events like earthquakes seemingly defy prediction. Research is still emerging on the impact of a war like in Ukraine on the climate crisis. However, even to amateur eyes, the dropping of thousands of missiles, bombs and artillery shells on the ground and exploding in the air, virtually on a daily basis, must not only pollute but also impact the fragile surrounding geology. In neighbouring Turkey, two major earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude occurred on February 6 this year followed by a series of aftershocks.

All the way down the seismic line in Asia, even as far as Fiji region on June 10 (5.9 magnitude) significant earthquakes are occurring since the tragedy in Turkey. Indian scientists have been predicting a major earthquake in India and had also issued a warning to Sri Lanka before the current string of tremors began to be experienced here in May/ June along the southern coast and as far as Gampola in the central hills.

In this background, the recent visit to Sri Lanka by the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) assumes significance when Sri Lanka on June 6 announced the successful completion of its domestic ratification process for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) , with grant of Cabinet approval. The CTBT was signed by Sri Lanka on October 24, 1996 but ratification was stalled for many years due to political pressures. Under the Treaty´s global verification regime, a network of 321 monitoring stations were to be set up – spanning some 90 countries – able to record shock waves generated by possible nuclear explosions and other sources in the atmosphere, under water or underground. The network includes 50 primary and 120 auxiliary seismic stations whose data can be used to help distinguish between possible nuclear explosions and the many thousands of earth tremors registered annually.

Sri Lanka signed a Facility Agreement with the CTBTO in June 2000 which led the way for the establishment of an auxiliary seismological station in Pallekelle, Kandy, as part of the International Monitoring System (IMS) to verify compliance with the CTBT. Hardly any public information is available on the current status of this Kandy station and whether it is operational, although any data collected would be valuable both in the context of the earth tremors Sri Lanka is experiencing recently and in the wider context of a possible nuclear radiation threat arising out of the war in Ukraine. Interestingly the Sri Lanka Air Force has been training in the last months for handling a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear explosives emergency under international technical assistance from the IAEA (International Atomis Energy Authority).

The significance of the CTBTO ratification is dwelt on here to meet public skepticism over Sri Lanka’s diplomatic forays into the worlds of disarmament and elimination of all forms of weapons of mass destruction. Engaging in multilateral diplomacy, foreign diplomats would often ask their Sri Lankan counterparts why Sri Lanka was so interested in the two extremes of the world, the sea bed and outer space. However, there was always a basis in national interest. The close involvement of Sri Lankan diplomats in the Law of the Sea negotiations under UN auspices eventually led to its taking into account of Sri Lanka’s position as a developing state, as also the peculiarities of her continental shelf in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal whereby under the special method of delimitation Sri Lanka will be able to claim parts of the seabed well beyond the 350 miles cut off point provided under the general provisions.

As for outer space, Arthur Clarke, the scientist-writer residing in Sri Lanka, was instrumental in drawing Sri Lanka’s attention many years ago to the advent of Artificial Intelligence as well as the many benefits of outer space and the need to keep space peaceful. Since those early days, Sri Lanka has been in the forefront of efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space, underlining the increasing importance of satellites for communications and many peaceful uses of remote sensing as well as addressing the global threat posed by space debris.

Today United Nations as agreed by member states has set a target of achieving by 2030, 17 goals for sustainable development and human security ,including poverty alleviation, quality education, good health, clean water, clean energy, decent work, industry innovation, reduced inequality, sustainable cities, responsible consumption and production, encompassing both life on land and under water, together with climate action. Taking into consideration the international classification of Sri Lanka as a country particularly vulnerable to both conflict and natural disasters, this article suggests that Sri Lanka in the present economic crisis, take a step back from “rapid economic growth” models which all too often deplete its natural resources including water, forests, stone, gravel and sand, and instead focus on careful management of its natural wealth, ecosystems and biodiversity.

Judging by press articles, the navy is already working in cooperation with the private sector and other organizations as well as with the general public, in several areas such as marine and coastal protection, installing reverse osmosis plants etc. The army is best known for its outreach work in agriculture and food production, hospital and university education, however these initiatives have not gained full recognition due to resentment of local farmers and market contradictions in the field and resistance from faculty and students in the formal education and health sectors.

A more feasible possibility lies in building upon the strengths in logistics and engineering Sri Lanka’s military had developed during the armed conflict. Are there innovations here which may be commercialized or taken up in public-private partnerships contributing to import substitution and domestic savings? The army engineers work on solving practical problems and have succeeded in tackling issues like the flooding of Nuwara Eliya town by tracing the flow of water, unblocking the obstacles and constructing the required drainage channels.

They should be given an opportunity to work on the perennial flooding affecting towns in Galle, Matara and Ratnapura in low cost projects at a time when the era of grand hydraulic construction led by the Irrigation Department seems to be coming to an end. Uma Oya with its delays and cost-overruns may probably be the last such project due to the scale of public protests since the tunneling apparently had caused all the wells in the neighbouring areas to run dry.

The strengths of the armed forces come into public view mainly in a time of emergency when the armed forces form the first line of rescue. Yet other countries have already placed critical infrastructure like reservoirs under military management and control, viz. the United States Army Corps of Engineers which operates and maintains the safety of dams across a huge expanse of territory. Elsewhere, foreign militaries have even been engaged in the management of local parks i.e. by training local rangers in African countries to control poaching and educate communities to protect their wild life treasure. Can our defence research and training institutes (Buttala for example is strategically located in the proximity of two major parks Udawalawe and Yala) partner with the wildlife authorities and contribute to mitigating the human-elephant conflict?

From Kavan to Muthuraja, Sri Lanka’s international image has been reeling on huge publicity over the abuse and neglect of domestic elephants. The latest incident made international news headlines when that majestic tusker Muthuraja once gifted to Sri Lanka was airlifted by the Thai government back to Thailand for medical treatment. In Thailand , elephants with special characteristics are considered as national treasure by the Thai Royal family and cared for in the palace grounds by the Thai armed forces. Instead of just conveying official apologies to the Thai government, should not our Prime Minister have asked the Thai government for assistance to train our mahouts and an exchange programme for our vets to learn from the elephant hospital and sanctuary in Thailand and help bring the care of all domestic elephants under some systematic care?

The Sri Lankan armed forces dispose of many research and training institutions scattered around the country. Some thought should be given to better coordination and managing of these resources in the national interest. For example the proposed national Climate Change University could be conceptualized not as an independent institute but positioned as a central lynchpin within the network of defence research and training institutes. Sri Lanka is in fact very good at setting up research and training institutes in every field, the problem come with implementing research findings and giving employment to trained students, which means this valuable human capital ends up going overseas to help other countries instead of contributing to the national good.

In time, many of these R&D institutions find it difficult to maintain large buildings and staff, which is a problem not unique to Sri Lanka. It is worth recalling that the UN at its inception was intended to have all its affiliates in one centre in New York in order to share administrative costs but subsequently various powerful individuals worked with their national authorities to take away the specialized agencies like FAO to Rome, ILO to Geneva etc

(Sarala Fernando, retired from the Foreign Ministry as Additional Secretary. Her last Ambassadorial appointment was as Permanent Representative to the UN and International Organizations in Geneva . Her Ph.D was on India-Sri Lanka relations and she writes now on foreign policy, public diplomacy and protection of heritage).