Sri Lanka and the Non-Aligned Movement

Sri Lanka is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. Principles of Non-Alignment and participation in movement's activities is of high priority in foreign policy of the country.^[1]

Its capital of Colombo hosted the 5th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on 16–19 August 1976. The country proposed its bid to host the summit at the 1973 Non-Aligned Standing Committee Conference in Kabul.^[2] Following the 1976 Summit Sri Lanka held the chairmanship of the movement for three years until 1979.^[3] This role represented the pinnacle of Sri Lankan foreign policy in the period of Cold War.^[4]

History

 

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Ahead of the 2nd Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement Indonesia and China strongly criticized the idea of the Non-Aligned conference as counterproductive to Bandung which motivated Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Sirimavo Bandaranaike to confront those criticisms by stressing indivisibility of the World peace.^[5]

On 16–19 August 1976 in Colombo hosted the 5th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement with 86 nations participated in the summit with additional 30 observers and guests representing all the continents in the world.^[6] The logo of the conference included references to five values of self-determination, economic development, peace and security, solidarity and the denial of colonialism and imperialism.^[7] The Government of Sri Lanka declared the public holiday to enable residents in the capital city to get to the street and see and greet foreign guests.^[7]

At the time of 6th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana, delegation of Sri Lanka expressed the concern that due to the host's sectarianism his opening speech was deficient in showing appropriate level of statecraft.^[2] In 2021, during his participation in 60th Anniversary Additional Commemorative Non-Aligned Meeting in Belgrade, Tharaka Balasuriya reaffirmed his country's continued commitment to principles and goals of the movement.^[8]

See also

• India and the Non-Aligned Movement
• Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement
• Egypt and the Non-Aligned Movement
• Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall

References

1. "Non-alignment and SL's foreign policy". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Sri Lanka). 10 January 2012.
2. Tvrtko Jakovina (2011). Treća strana Hladnog rata [The Third Side of the Cold War] (in Croatian). Fraktura. ISBN 978-953-266-203-0.
3. Karunadasa, W. M. (1993). "A re-appraisal of Sri Lanka's Non-Alignment : 1948 - 1960". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka. 37: 69–81.
4. "Non Alignment: Will Lanka abandon principles". The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka).
5. Bogetić, Dragan (2017). "Sukob Titovog koncepta univerzalizma i Sukarnovog koncepta regionalizma na Samitu nesvrstanih u Kairu 1964" [The Conflict Between Tito’s Concept of Universalism and Sukarno’s Concept of Regionalism in the 1964 Summit of Non-Aligned Countries in Cairo]. Istorija 20. Veka. 35 (2). Institute for Contemporary History, Belgrade: 101–118. doi:10.29362/IST20VEKA.2017.2.BOG.101-118.
6. Prithvis Chakravarti (11 April 2015). "Non-aligned Summit: Togetherness in Colombo". India Today. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
7. Jürgen Dinkel (2014). "'To grab the headlines in the world press': Non-aligned summits as media events". In Nataša Mišković; Herald Fischer-Tine; Nada Boškovska (eds.). The Non-Aligned Movement and the Cold War: Delhi — Bandung — Belgrade. Routledge. pp. 207–225. ISBN 978-0-415-74263-4.
8. "Sri Lanka remains committed to principles and goals of the Non-Aligned movement - State Minister Balasuriya". Lanka Business Online.