The Significance of French President Macron’s Visit to Sri Lanka – The Diplomat

The Pulse | Diplomacy | South Asia

French President Emmanuel Macron made a brief however historic go to to Sri Lanka on July 28-29, the primary by a French president to the Indian Ocean island nation. The timing was auspicious: 2023 marks 75 years of bilateral relations between France and Sri Lanka.

Following Macron’s go to, the Sri Lankan President’s Workplace famous in an announcement, “The principle goal was to boost and elevate the present relations between Sri Lanka and France, particularly contemplating the seventy fifth anniversary of their diplomatic ties being celebrated this yr.” However Macron’s go to to Sri Lanka  not solely carries symbolic worth but additionally strategic salience.

Macron’s go to to Sri Lanka comes towards the backdrop of its financial disaster, the worst the nation has seen since its independence. The financial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and sure structural weaknesses, together with financial mismanagement by successive governments, have contributed to its present financial hardships. With a complete debt of round $7.1 billion owed to bilateral collectors, the nation’s debt load elevated to catastrophic ranges, resulting in a catastrophic default final yr. Right this moment, Sri Lanka is working to restructure its $83 billion in whole home and exterior debt.

Over the span of a decade, the Agence Française de Développement, the first actor in France’s official improvement help, has dedicated a complete of 626 million euros towards varied initiatives in Sri Lanka, establishing itself as one of many distinguished bilateral lending companions of Sri Lanka. France, the island nation’s fourth-largest bilateral creditor, has been exhibiting a extra favorable outlook towards debt-restructuring efforts in Sri Lanka. France, together with its Indo-Pacific companions, India and Japan, has initiated a joint debt restructuring negotiation program for Sri Lanka to assist the island nation’s debt restructuring course of. Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi termed the launch of this program as “a historic improvement.”

However, China, the biggest bilateral creditor of Sri Lanka, declined to take part in this system and determined that it could solely help the debt-ridden nation bilaterally.

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Sri Lanka’s financial turmoil has put it in a fragile scenario with its international collectors, significantly China, to whom it owes round a fifth of its public exterior debt. Furthermore, as a result of slowing home financial system, Chinese language banks are actually extra pushed to get well the debt that they’d beforehand lent to growing nations worldwide. Although China is just not the first reason for the Sri Lankan financial disaster, the fragile home scenario within the Indian Ocean island nation has introduced into query the exterior lending and investments sample adopted by Beijing, the biggest sovereign creditor in abroad improvement finance on the planet.

China employs a definite strategy to exterior lending in comparison with standard bilateral collectors like Japan and France, characterised by non-stringent finance disbursement protocols and minimal consideration to environmental affect assessments, thereby expediting the method of mortgage accessibility for the borrowing nations. This mannequin of improvement finance usually carries geopolitical implications and compromised sovereignty for the borrower nations.

Macron, throughout his current go to to the Indo-Pacific area, introduced up this problem of unsustainable loans and investments, and the potential erosion of the sovereignty of the international locations within the area. Throughout his go to to the South Pacific, the place the nice energy competitors between China and the US is looming, Macron tried to characterize China as threatening the sovereignty of the island nations within the area. He denounced “new imperialism,” hinting towards Beijing’s rising financial clout and the next problem to the “independence” of the island nations within the Indo-Pacific.

Macron arrived in Sri Lanka after visiting the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia and the South Pacific nations of Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, the place he conveyed his message of France being able to uphold the sovereignty and independence of island nations inclined to the unfavourable affect of China within the area.

His go to to Sri Lanka additionally helped reassure Colombo of Paris’ assist for debt restructuring and strengthening bilateral relations. France’s diplomatic assist for Sri Lanka, together with its Indo-Pacific companions India and Japan, signifies that the island nation is just not remoted regardless of its financial difficulties. Such assurances and constructive approaches are needed to realize belief in different collectors for the debt restructuring course of within the crisis-ridden Sri Lanka and stabilization of its financial system.

Macron’s unprecedented go to to Sri Lanka, the primary ever by a French president, helped strengthen his message of re-engagement with the Indo-Pacific area with a renewed concentrate on points like sustainable improvement and safety concerns. Whereas his go to to the South Pacific portrayed a posh understanding of the area’s priorities and energy dynamics for Paris, his final cease within the Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka demonstrated France’s will to assist the island nations throughout the Indo-Pacific of their developmental and security-related wants together with like-minded companions within the area.