Looking at external manifestations, this implies that new Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake gives India priority in foreign policy, significantly different from his predecessors in recent decades.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (left) stands next to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
For Sri Lanka as well as for the outside world, giving priority to India means not giving priority to China anymore. Mr. Dissanayake’s recent predecessors were all biased towards China, whether they wanted to or did not dare, and were completely biased towards China. So is this new president of Sri Lanka. Before leaving to visit India, Mr. Dissanayake planned to visit China early next year. Bias first, balance later that’s it. The difference between Mr. Dissanayake and his predecessors is only that he was biased towards India first and then built a balance with China, while his predecessors were the opposite.
Mr. Dissanayake turned to the former bias because he saw that only New Delhi, not Beijing, could help Sri Lanka escape the current very serious socio-economic crisis. And although China is still very important to Sri Lanka, “distant water cannot put out nearby fires”.
For New Delhi, the change in the new President of Sri Lanka has provided a rare favorable opportunity to take advantage of and bind the neighboring country into a strong cooperative relationship with India. Sri Lanka has become especially important to India because currently both Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives are biased toward China first and balancing with India later.
In practical relations between countries, bias is easy and balance is difficult, bias first and balance later is even more difficult.
