Explained: The Sri Lanka-Pakistan tango  

Context:

• Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Sri Lanka on February 23 and 24 triggered a fair amount of controversy because of a cancelled invitation to address the Sri Lankan parliament.
• But ties between the two countries are deeper and on more solid footing than is immediately apparent — and this incident could not have caused any damage to a long and steady relationship.

Sri Lanka-Pakistan Relations:

• Economic Ties:
  • Pakistan is Sri Lanka’s second largest trading partner in South Asia after India.
  • The two countries decided to reactivate a Joint Working Group to resolve pending technical issues on trade.
  • Sri Lanka and Pakistan have a free trade agreement dating back to 2005.
  • Pakistan’s top exports to Sri Lanka are textiles and cement; Sri Lanka’s top exports to Pakistan are tea, rubber, and readymade garments.
  • Pakistan has also tried to work on a cultural connection with Sri Lanka by highlighting its ancient Buddhist connections and sites.
• Defence Ties:
  • Defence ties are a strong pillar of the Sri Lanka-Pakistan bilateral relationship.
  • After pulling back the IPKF in 1990, India provided no active defence support to the Sri Lankan military, although there was intelligence sharing during the war against the LTTE.
  • Sri Lanka turned to Pakistan for arms and ammunition, as well as training for its fighter pilots, in the last stages of the war.
  • Just as Sri Lankan military officers come to India for training at National Defence College and Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, they go to Pakistani military academies.
  • During the 1971 war, Pakistani jets refueled in Sri Lanka. Pakistan’s envoys to Sri Lanka are usually retired military officials — and the same was true for Sri Lanka’s High Commissioners to Pakistan until a few years ago.

Neighborhood friends:

• This was Imran Khan’s only second foray in the neighborhood since becoming Prime Minister. His first was to Afghanistan last November.
• The last time a Pakistani PM visited Colombo was Nawaz Sharif in 2016. The visit signaled that despite India’s best efforts at “isolating” Pakistan, Islamabad has friends in the neighborhood.
• For Colombo, the visit held much value, coming as it did at a fraught time for the government on the international stage.
• Imminently, it is bracing for a resolution against it at the UN Human Rights Commission for withdrawing from resolution 30/1 of September 2015, under which it committed to carry out war crimes investigations.
• To make matters worse, the Islamic world is appalled by Sri Lanka’s tight rules for disposal of bodies of Muslims who have died of Covid-19.
• Muslims, who make up about 11 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population, have had tense relations with the Sinhala Buddhist majority for much of the last decade, with riots shattering the uneasy calm every few years.
• Tensions spiked especially after the synchronized Easter 2019 suicide bombings by a group of men and women who claimed to be members of ISIS.

India, Pak, Sri Lanka:

• A speculated reason for the cancellation of Khan’s address to Parliament was concern that he would raise the Kashmir issue, and that at a time when India is already cut up about Sri Lanka’s abrupt withdrawal from a tripartite agreement (along with Japan) for the development of the East Container Terminal at Colombo port.
• Sri Lanka has learnt to balance its ties with India and Pakistan.
• Khan’s invitation to his hosts to “take advantage” of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor to enhance trade ties did not elicit any reaction, at least not in public.
• In the past, Colombo has pitched for an economic corridor overland for access to countries beyond.
• As Sri Lanka’s closest neighbor with strong, all-encompassing ties — even if these keep hitting rough patches — India has not perceived Pakistan as a serious rival in Colombo so far.
• Delhi’s over flight permission to Khan’s plane to Colombo was seen as a sign of the new military thaw at the LoC, but it is possible that permission would have been given even without the imminent India-Pakistan agreement on the ceasefire.

Conclusion:

• The Indian security establishment has voiced concerns about Pakistan’s role in the radicalization of Muslims — especially in Eastern Sri Lanka where funds have poured in for new mosques from some West Asian countries — and the effect this could have in India.
• Now, there is some wariness about a convergence of interests between Sri Lanka, China, and Pakistan in the Indian Ocean region and in defence co-operation, although this has not been publicly expressed.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/simply-put-pakistan-sri-lanka-ties-7206715/