Lanka caught in arecanut cutter - EDITORIAL

Our country is today caught up in a financial meltdown of our own making. We are dependent on the goodwill of all nations to keep our country economically afloat.
We are now dependent on an International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt restructuring facility to make us creditworthy in the international arena.Only after this international credit will be available to us to import essentials, from food to medicines, to fuel and other industrial requirements.

The IMF and the World Bank are creatures of the US, created in July 1944 at an international conference in the United States (in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire) - a framework for economic co-operation aimed at creating a more stable and prosperous global economy.

In other words, we have now lost our right to make independent foreign policy decisions, being obliged to look over our shoulder; so-to-say, to ensure not trampling someone’s toes.
To make matter worse, around the world many war-like preparations are unfolding at high speed. Being debtors, needing an IMF bailout, we are being pushed hither and thither to back particular causes which is in fact irrelevant to our wellbeing. 

In Asia, the US continues waging an economic war against China. Yet, China is our biggest creditor. According to US media - America is completing a military encirclement around China via naval cum military bases covering the sea routes around
that country.

The latest in the ring around China being four additional bases in the Philippines - offering Washington better oversight over the waters of the South China Sea and around Taiwan. The US Marine Corps also opened a new base in Guam last month.The US now have bases from the Philippines to Australia, to Japan to Guam. More and more American troops and military assets are also headed towards Asia, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US sees China’s meteoric economic rise as an economic super power, as a challenge and threat to its worldwide economic and military leadership. Today, the US is waging an undeclared economic war against the rising Asian giant via imposing a slew of economic sanctions on China and pressurizing its allies and countries dependent on its military umbrella to cancel or breakoff economic ties connected to companies operating out of China.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the US government is ratcheting up pressure on Beijing’s 5G ambitions overseas, offering financial incentives and other enticements to countries willing to shun Chinese-made telecom gear. Providing no evidence, the US charges Chinese supplied 5G pose a spying threat.

In Europe, the US is waging a proxy war against Russia (home to large supplies of oil and gas) in the Ukraine, pouring billions of dollars in military merchandise to that country. But has stopped short of giving that country the weapons it has requested or to put boots on the ground.The war in Ukraine has left thousands of Ukrainians dead and injured and damages to buildings and infrastructure run into hundreds of billions of dollars. 
The war is also wreaking havoc in West European nations who are dependent on cheap Russian oil and gas.

The US has sanctioned Russian gas. West European nations dependent on the US for their military defence, have been forced to follow suit. These nations are now forced to purchase oil and gas supplies from the US at increased prices! We in Sri Lanka - not involved in any way with US wars and proxy wars. But are being not so subtly pressurized to back the Americans in their geopolitical games. Just days ago, a contingent of top US diplomats paid a ‘visit’ to our shores. Without even being asked, the US team leader announced he was not here to discuss setting up a US military base in Trincomalee.

According to the ‘Small Wars Journal’ for naval harbouring and maritime security in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is an ideal location for a naval base to oversee the Indian Ocean and its increasingly busy shipping lanes. China’s imports of oil from the Middle East pass through these shipping lanes.

Equally interesting, Germany is now seeking Sri Lanka’s support for a resolution at the UN against Russia. The request comes in the backdrop of German companies threatening to pull out of this country due to import restrictions. Similarly Japanese companies have also threatened to withdraw from this island! What short memories people have... At the end of World War II, it was the little Sri Lanka that stood up for Japan when the allies were threatening with various punitive measures against that country.
It’s as good a time to recall a quote from China’s late leader Mao Tse-tung “There are no permanent friends or enemies in international politics — national interests prevail over all else.