Sri Lanka and the Non-Aligned Movement

Sri Lanka is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. Principles of Non-Alignment and participation in movement's activities is of high priority in foreign policy of the country.^[1]

Its capital of Colombo hosted the 5th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on 16–19 August 1976. The country proposed its bid to host the summit at the 1973 Non-Aligned Standing Committee Conference in Kabul.^[2] Following the 1976 Summit Sri Lanka held the chairmanship of the movement for three years until 1979.^[3] This role represented the pinnacle of Sri Lankan foreign policy in the period of Cold War.^[4]

History

Ahead of the 2nd Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement Indonesia and China strongly criticized the idea of the Non-Aligned conference as counterproductive to Bandung which motivated Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Sirimavo Bandaranaike to confront those criticisms by stressing indivisibility of the World peace.^[5]

On 16–19 August 1976 in Colombo hosted the 5th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement with 86 nations participated in the summit with additional 30 observers and guests representing all the continents in the world.^[6] The logo of the conference included references to five values of self-determination, economic development, peace and security, solidarity and the denial of colonialism and imperialism.^[7] The Government of Sri Lanka declared the public holiday to enable residents in the capital city to get to the street and see and greet foreign guests.^[7]

At the time of 6th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana, delegation of Sri Lanka expressed the concern that due to the host's sectarianism his opening speech was deficient in showing appropriate level of statecraft.^[2] In 2021, during his participation in 60th Anniversary Additional Commemorative Non-Aligned Meeting in Belgrade, Tharaka Balasuriya reaffirmed his country's continued commitment to principles and goals of the movement.^[8]