Moragoda’s eventful tenure as High Commissioner to India

Milinda Moragoda’s three-year term as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India, which overlapped with the worst economic crisis of the nation in its post-independent history, will conclude at the end of this month. The worth of critical assistance extended to Sri Lanka by its big neighbour during the height of the economic crisis last year is immeasurable, and the pivotal role played by Moragoda as Sri Lanka’s envoy to India during that period is indeed worthy of praise and admiration. 

It was India’s economic aid package to the tune of $ 4 billion that provided the breathing space for the battered island to sail over the tough times it endured. Moragoda’s appointment was perhaps one of the few good decisions made by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Sri Lankan envoy has been meeting a wide range of political leaders, government officials, and corporate bigwigs as part of his farewell, reflecting the valuable relationships he had been able to cement in his capacity as High Commissioner. Although successive governments have been accused of making political appointments to the Sri Lankan diplomatic missions, some of those appointees have excelled impeccably in discharging their responsibilities. Moragoda joins a select band of individuals who worked with immense gusto to serve the motherland when they were chosen to head overseas missions even though they were not career diplomats.

Diplomacy is nothing new to the outgoing Sri Lankan High Commissioner. His father – the Late Christopher Pinto was an illustrious civil servant who served as the first Legal Advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany in late ’60s. Moragoda began his political career from the UNP, and he was Minister of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology in the two-year UNP Government from 2002 to 2004. During this period, he was widely considered a right-hand man of then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The former Cabinet Minister was an influential member of the Government’s delegation during the negotiations with the LTTE in addition to functioning as the principal interlocutor with the international donor community in the short-lived Wickremesinghe administration. 

Perhaps, the biggest blunder he made in his political career was joining the Rajapaksa-oriented dispensation in 2007, whose ethno-nationalist, big-government brand of politics was not compatible with the cosmopolitan, pro-market outlook echoed by him. This was vindicated by his defeat at the 2010 General Election subsequent to his crossover, resulting in a complete about-turn in his political fortunes, since he was only second to Ranil Wickremesinghe from Colombo District in terms of preferential votes when he contested from the UNP, as its votebase was sympathetic to his world view.

While the world’s most populous country – whose influence in the global power politics is on the ascendancy – is our immediate neighbour, its East Asian rival is our largest bilateral creditor. Because of its geographical location, the South Asian Island would always be subject to power games between India and China. Last year, a geopolitical rift occurred when the Chinese research ship – Yuan Wang 5 – wanted to enter Hambantota Port. However, President Wickremesinghe, in manifestation of his skilful diplomacy, delicately and amicably resolved the tension by allaying the fears of India and the vessel was eventually allowed to dock. Given the complicated position Sri Lanka finds itself in, it cannot afford to lose the goodwill of either China or India.

The India-Sri Lanka Economic Partnership Vision agreement, which was unveiled when the President visited India last July, intends to take the relationship between the neighbours to greater heights by enhancing maritime, air, energy, financial, and people-to-people connectivity. In the context of the complex geopolitical undercurrents and the sensitivity of the relationship with India, Moragoda’s successor will have an immensely challenging assignment on hand.