Gotabaya Rajapaksa is all set to become the next Sri Lankan president

Syllabus subtopic: India and its neighbourhood-relations

News: Sri Lanka People’s Front party presidential election candidate and former wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa is all set to become president of the island nation after his main rival conceded defeat on Sunday.

Prelims and Mains focus India-Sri Lanka relations,

Context:

• Gotabaya’s election heralds the return of the family which oversaw the elimination of the dreaded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist group in 2009 into the political mainstream in Sri Lanka.
• One of Gotabaya’s pre-poll promises was to bring back his brother—former president Mahinda Rajapaksa—as his prime minister to ensure a firm pair of hands at the helm of security affairs given that the polls followed deadly bombings by Islamist militants in April that threw the country with a population of 22 million into turmoil. Ironically, the attacks, blamed on Islamic State terrorists came exactly a decade after the elimination of the LTTE in May 2009.
• Most Sri Lankans are Sinhalese Buddhists with Muslims and Christians making up the religious minority.

Way ahead:

• With the return of the Rajapaksa, New Delhi will be keeping a close eye on ties between Colombo and Beijing.
• India has been wary of increased Chinese influence in Sri Lanka during the years the Rajapaksas were in power.
• India has also been worried about Colombo signing up for China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. With the Rajapaksas back in power, New Delhi would be worried about an increase in Chinese investments in the island nation that will grow Beijing’s sway over a country that is seen as lying within India’s sphere of influence.

ADMM-Plus meeting

Syllabus subtopic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

News: The latest ADMM-Plus meeting where Defence Ministers of ASEAN countries and eight other nations would gather and discuss the way forward for security cooperation, is being held in Bangkok.

Prelims and Mains focus: ADMM- Plus- composition, objectives and significance.

ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus):

• Consistent with the ADMM guiding principles of open and outward-looking, the 2^nd ADMM in Singapore in 2007 adopted the Concept Paper to establish the ADMM-Plus.

• The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region.

• Agreed on five areas of practical cooperation under this new mechanism, namely maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping operations and military medicine. In 2013, a new priority area of humanitarian mine action was agreed upon.

Objectives:

1. To benefit ASEAN member countries in building capacity to address shared security challenges, while cognisant of the differing capacities of various ASEAN countries.
2. To promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency.
3. To enhance regional peace and stability through cooperation in defence and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces.
4. To contribute to the realisation of an ASEAN Security Community which, as stipulated in the Bali Concord II, embodies ASEAN’s aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the region.
5. To facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which calls for ASEAN to build a peaceful, secure and prosperous ASEAN, and to adopt greater outward-looking external relation strategies with our friends and Dialogue Partners.