Midweek Review

In January 1950, Sri Lanka hosted the first meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers held in Asia, attended by the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the newly independent Asian Commonwealth nations including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It was at this meeting that the Colombo Plan was conceived. Shortly thereafter, Sri Lanka joined with India, Pakistan, Burma, and Indonesia to form the Colombo Powers—the first post-colonial Asian regional grouping. The Colombo Powers Conference, held in Colombo and Kandy in 1954, laid the groundwork for Asian-African solidarity that culminated in the landmark Bandung Conference in 1955.

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In January 1950

Sri Lanka hosted the first meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers held in Asia, attended by the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the newly independent Asian Commonwealth nations including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It was at this meeting that the Colombo Plan was conceived. Shortly thereafter, Sri Lanka joined with India, Pakistan, Burma, and Indonesia to form the Colombo Powers—the first postcolonial Asian regional grouping. The Colombo Powers Conference, held in Colombo and Kandy in 1954, laid the groundwork for Asian-African solidarity that culminated in the landmark Bandung Conference in 1955.

Despite the active engagement of Sri Lanka in regional and affairs global, the country has not cultivated a sustained academic tradition of informed research on foreign policy and international affairs. However, Sri Lankan newspapers, especially in the decades following independence, regularly featured columns and commentaries on contemporary world events, penned by astute journalists who demonstrated a nuanced understanding of geopolitical developments. Likewise, the Sri Lankan Parliament, particularly during its first three decades, was a vibrant forum for substantive debate on the country's foreign policy, reflecting a political culture deeply attuned to international dynamics. Given this early intellectual engagement—both in the media and in the Parliament—it is particularly striking that scholarly inquiry into Sri Lanka’s foreign policy has remained underdeveloped. The first substantive work on Sri Lanka's foreign policy, Indo-Ceylon Relations since Independence by S.U. Kodikara, appeared only in 1965. It was followed 19 years later by H.S.S. Nissanka’s Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy: A Study in Non-Alignment.