Foreign policy mistakes of JRJ and AKD's tilt to the US

It is becoming increasingly clear that President Dissanayake is following the missteps of late former President J.R. Jayewardene in his approach to international relations.

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Former President JRJ, always suspicious of Indian interests, attempted to hitch his government's policy to those of the US, in the belief the US and the West would stand by him in the event of relations breaking down with our giant neighbour.

JRJ forgot that markets determine big power support. When India forcibly airdropped food supplies in the north during the ethnic conflict in this country, neither the US nor the West European countries condemned the move. India after all was a huge market for those countries.

Today, we are watching with growing fear, horror and shame our present left-leaning government once again showing its readiness to bow to the wishes of the US. In the present case, our government in an effort to placate the US remained one of the few states which did not walk out when the Israeli premier addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

Making matters even worse was the fact that our president and his party, before they were elected into power, organised anti-Israel demonstrations both here and abroad against Israeli atrocities in Palestine. Perhaps it is the mountain of still unpaid foreign debt and the fact that the US is our biggest export market that led to our government's weakkneed stance at the UN General Assembly debate on the ongoing Israeli genocide in Palestine.