Pompeo visit: More to it than the optics

The scheduled, once postponed visit of the topmost diplomat from the United States next week is bound to generate some excitement locally, especially by those who see a CIA plot behind every bush but remain ominously silent about the creeping submission through a Chinese ‘debt trap’.

It is not just that these vociferous ‘anti-Imperialist’ elements are now in the Government which has just allowed US dual citizens to enter Sri Lanka’s Parliament and would be forced to remain mute leaving it to fringe groups to raise some noise. The Chinese embassy in Colombo has taken a pro-active role in slamming the US for asking Sri Lanka to take sides in a war of the modern day Titans.

The visiting US Secretary of State is expected to bring up some contentious issues during the bilateral talks. The MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) economic grant is on the cards. Sri Lanka has already sent feelers, it is learnt, if the grant can be without the Land Deeds component and have only the Transportation aspect of the offer. The already inked ACSA (Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement) and to be negotiated SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) military engagement pacts are not on the official agenda.

The US sponsored resolution at the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) in Geneva against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and its political leadership in 2009 are sore points in the relationship between the two countries. The US may have paternity over that resolution but it no longer has guardianship having left the UN agency with the UK stepping in to fill its shoes with regard to the anti-Sri Lanka witch-hunt. On the other hand, the US is Sri Lanka’s largest garment export market.

That the US Secretary of State arrives just about a week or so before a crucial Presidential election back at home and given that his President is trailing big time in the opinion polls makes the distinguished visitor a virtual lame duck dignitary. He will probably not have his job by the end of the year. Though in US political circles he is considered a potential future Presidential candidate himself, how seriously he can be taken right now is the question. His political rivals are pledging to overturn much of current US foreign policy, including a return to the UN agencies like UNESCO, WHO and UNHRC that they quit.

While many countries will wait to see which way the wind blows by November 3 and who will be at the Oval Office at the White House in 2021, some fundamental foreign policy targets like containing what the US military call “Chinese hegemony” in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond will not change. One can only hope Sri Lanka’s diplomats have read their briefs, if any, are thorough with the subjects on the agenda, and are up to the task at the negotiating table next week.