Sri Lanka-Pakistan relations are likely to strengthen following Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s two-day visit to Colombo. There were some apprehensions that Khan would roil bilateral relations by giving his Sri Lankan hosts some unsolicited advice on treatment of Muslims. He refrained from doing so. Consequently, his visit went off smoothly, with ruffling feathers in Colombo. Pakistan offered Sri Lanka a $50-million line of credit for defence purchases. Khan urged the Sri Lankans, who are already enthusiastic participants in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He invited Sri Lanka to use Gwadar port to transport goods to Central Asia. The two sides also signed five memorandums of understanding (MoUs) during Khan’s visit. These will deepen co-operation in the fields of investment, science and technology.
Sri Lanka and Pakistan have had strong relations for decades. Defence co-operation grew rapidly especially during the Sri Lankan conflict when Islamabad, like China and Iran, provided the Sri Lankan Army with weaponry to fight the LTTE. The India dimension of their relationship is hard to miss. There are times when Colombo has stood by Pakistan much to New Delhi’s concern. During the 1971 India-Pakistan war, for instance, Sri Lanka offered Pakistan Air Force jets with refuelling facilities in Colombo. India was the elephant in the room during Khan’s engagements with the Sri Lankans. Parallels were drawn between Pakistan’s defence LoC to Colombo and the LoCs India extended to Maldives and Mauritius a few days earlier. True to form, the Pakistan prime minister raised Kashmir in a speech in Colombo. And apparently, the Sri Lankan government retracted its invite to Khan to address the Sri Lankan parliament in order to avoid annoying Delhi.
However, it is also likely that the Rajapaksa government was apprehensive that Khan would raise the plight of Sri Lankan Muslims in his speech to parliament. Alienation and anger among Sri Lankan Muslims is high and the government’s ban on burials to prevent the spread of the coronavirus has further riled the community. This decision has angered Muslims in other countries as well. Khan’s visit came at a difficult time for Colombo; it is under fire at the UN Human Rights Commission and is desperately mobilising international support for its position. Had Khan raised the issue of violation of Muslim rights in his speeches in Sri Lanka, it would have embarrassed his Sri Lankan hosts. His silence on that issue would have been appreciated by the Sri Lankan government.
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