President Ranil Wickremesinghe delivered a significant keynote address at the 11th edition of the Galle Dialogue International Maritime Conference.
Common challenges
The conference, held at the Jetwing Lighthouse Hotel in Galle, focused on strengthening regional maritime cooperation and devising a global strategy to address common challenges in the maritime domain.
Under the theme ‘Emerging New Order in the Indian Ocean,’ President Wickremesinghe praised the resumption of the Galle Dialogue post-Covid-19, stating the need to re-evaluate its focus in light of the pandemic-induced changes.
The President stressed that the primary focus should be on the Indian Ocean and its surrounding region, giving credit to Dr. Ram Madhav, a pioneer of the Indian Ocean Conference, for drawing attention to the area.
He highlighted the Indian Ocean’s uniqueness as a civilisation with a rich history, diverse cultures and religious significance, distinguishing it from global constructs like the Asia Pacific, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Indo-Pacific.
The President underlined the significance of ports in the evolving global trade landscape, saying Sri Lanka’s strategic location and the development of key ports such as Colombo, Trincomalee and Hambantota.
The following is the keynote address delivered by President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Galle Dialogue:
“It is good that we focus on the Indian Ocean and the surrounding area. We would like to have the views of those who are participating as to the area of focus of the Galle Dialogue.
We have Dr. Ram Madhav who has been the pioneer of the Indian Ocean Conference to bring attention to the Indian Ocean, so we have to discuss with the India Foundation as to how we can organise separate discussions as part of a collaboration and not as a part of competition.
Today, we are discussing the emerging new order in the Indian Ocean. I thought of asking the question, especially after listening to Dr. Ram Madhav, what is the Indian Ocean and what is its relation to the Asia Pacific, Indo-Pacific and the BRI.
The Asia Pacific is a construct and it began with the US construct of the Hub and Spoke system to consolidate its power after World War II in the Pacific, and an economic construct in the Asia Pacific which was joined by China and others. So, it is basically an economic construct.
Then what is the BRI? It is also seen by some as a security construct, but most of us see it as an economic and trade construct, a China-centric trade construct which builds on its historical trading relations with Europe and with Africa.
Then what is the Indo-Pacific? That is the latest security construct. I need not tell you what it is. You all know. What is the Indian Ocean? It’s not a construct. It is a civilisation. So, that is the difference. These constructs take place and they can move out.
There were European constructs of the Soviet bloc, the Western bloc and now that had all disappeared. You also got the European Union (EU) and the Ukraine War. So, these are constructs that are there for a certain time and then disappear. Their constructs are on security and on economics.
But the Indian Ocean is a civilisation. World civilisation has come out of this. From the Mohenjo-daro to the pharaohs to what you have today, is all a part of a civilisation. It is a civilisation from which we have seen some of the world’s best known religions.
The birth of Hinduism, the birth of Buddhism, the birth of Sikhism, Jainism and even Islam came from the Arabian Peninsula. So, all these have dominated our thinking.
The cultures that have gone through, superimposed by the British Empire. It is a civilisation that has existed and we have traded with each other, we have fought with each other, we have cultural links with each other. That civilisation cannot be destroyed, you cannot wipe it out.
What is the British Commonwealth? The majority of its members are from this area. Those are links that go on. So you have a civilization and you have the three different constructs. So, how do we fit into these constructs? What do we do? So, as a civilization what else is there in the Indian Ocean?
The Indian Ocean is also a political entity encompassing the Asia Pacific, Indo-Pacific and the BRI. It is from here that many civilizations came, the collapse of the British Empire and the Western Empires were in the Indian Ocean and it is from here that the Colombo Conference, Colombo Powers Conference and the Bandung Conference brought out Afro-Asianism and it is from here that Non-Alignment came and the concept of the Global South came. So, we are basically a political outfit.
We are the ones that gave recognition to the non-European sectors of the world as colonialism was collapsing. Within it was the Indian Ocean.
Mandela’s concept
We have the Indian Ocean Zone of Peace Resolution which all of us have accepted and you have late President Nelson Mandela’s concept of the Indian Ocean for social-economic and other peaceful uses and you have the Jakarta Concord. So we have got these definitions of the Indian Ocean. So, politically we are different from the Asia-Pacific or the other constructs. We all have different views on the Ukraine War. But, if you look at all the countries that did not want to get involved, the vast majority are from around the Indian Ocean. It goes in every direction.
So, you see that there is a political thinking here which must be taken into context and not outside that. Do I move from this area to the Indian Ocean? What do the islands think? What does Seychelles think? This may be very small but it is very important. What does the Maldives think and how are they going to react?
So, these are considerations which are not taken into effect by many of the security planners, but these are things that matter. In the end, it will matter.
Secondly, the economic aspect. The development that has taken place in East Asia and Asia Pacific, as Dr. Madhav says, will now move into the Indian Ocean, to India, to Bangladesh.
Similarly, on the other hand, you find the Gulf States. So you will find two big economic centres coming up in the Indian Ocean immediately, followed by Africa. By 2050, Africa is going to be booming. And those who have not should read African Agenda 2063.
So it becomes a centre. This does not mean that the Asia Pacific ceases to be. But there will be three main centres maybe.
The West, the Asia Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. So then we have an identity of our own in trading. So if you look at it that way, when Africa and all are trading, what is Sri Lanka’s position? We have a strategic location.
So if we develop our ports, we have Colombo as the big port, the regional logistic hub. We are developing Trincomalee with India so that as the Eastern Indian Ocean develops, we are also benefiting from it. And we have Hambantota. There are many ports that have been set up here in the Indian Ocean.
By the Chinese, by the Japanese, by others. So if you link up Hambantota with Africa, that is another commercial port.
So how do you look at it? Those of us who know civilisation and trade, look at the long term. Those who do not, look at it and ask, what on Earth is this port funded by the Chinese doing here in Hambantota?
It obviously is a military base. So you have to understand how these issues operate. But ports are important.
Remember that this part of the world will get control of the ports. With Dubai port, that is coming in and world ports. You are talking about a large number. Others are also getting it. If Sri Lanka can get a few ports, we will do that. We have to be in the game. So that is one important issue. Secondly, what about the airlines? Basically, airlines are dominated by the UAE and Qatar, which is also getting into airports. So you can see a new paradigm that is developing.
India and Pakistan have already taken over cricket. India especially with its Indian Premier League (IPL). The MCC no longer is the home of cricket. If you want to know what happens, look at the IPL.
Then you find the Saudis, UAE and Qatar trying to take over football clubs in Europe. So it is a new game that is going on.
In Asia, we are moving around everywhere. So within that framework, does it mean that we reject the Indo-Pacific? No, there is interconnectivity between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
Look at Islam. It has come from the Middle East and gone all the way to the Philippines. Nepal, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka among the non-Muslim majority countries. If you ask the Ramayana, they will tell you the story in Vietnam. That is why it’s called Indo-China.
Take Sri Lanka, our Theravada Buddhism. What started here went into Myanmar, to Thailand, to Laos, to Cambodia, to South Vietnam. We are very much in it.
Then the big connections on the Silk Road between China and India. India sent Buddhism across. Chinese came around here. So there is interconnectedness. So how do we look at it?
Distinct oceans
I think we in Sri Lanka accept the ASEAN outlook of the Indo-Pacific as two distinct oceans. Ram said it is a distinct ocean. This is a distinct ocean.
Global geopolitics will decide which stance we take, what we do. But we have to ensure one thing, that freedom of navigation and undersea cables prevail in the Indian Ocean. So this is why we must take the initiative now to go ahead.
And what is the new emerging order? Last week, while I was free, I jotted down a few points to talk about the new emerging order.
Yesterday I tore it up. What has happened in between has made what I am going to say redundant. But it will affect what is going to happen now, after the Hamas attack on Israel.
You could see politics taking its place. Israel has already formed a unity Government. So destroying Hamas is one thing. This whole picture of what I say will change.
I wouldn’t envy being involved in those negotiations. What do you do? On one hand you have a unity Government in Israel wanting to strike back.
If you go into Gaza, the whole Middle East will be on fire and that will affect all of us here. Up to Turkiye on one end, up to the Philippines on the other side. It will affect Central Asia, including Xinjiang.
So in the next few days we will decide what the options are. I would not like to be in US President Joe Biden’s shoes. How does he handle it this way?
Bad enough with allies on both sides? How do you handle it domestically when you have to think of the Jewish vote bloc for the next election? And his difficulty of speaking with Congress.
It may be easier for him to speak to Hamas than to speak to the Congress leadership. It is how delicate it is. But his decisions will depend on what happens. So all this that we said today can change tomorrow. So let us hope wise leadership prevails and I think a lot of backdoor diplomacy is going on.
We hope that all that will succeed and somehow we can hold the situation. Otherwise we will have to meet again to decide on the new order that has emerged.”
