Bogollagama with New Plan for Countering Terrorism

(November, 23,Kampala, Uganda, Sri Lanka Guardian) Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama proposed enhanced action oriented initiatives on terrorism at the Opening Session of the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers Meeting in Uganda. The Minister went on to highlight the impact of terrorism on the political and economic stability of member states.

Minister Bogollagama reminded that terrorism remained a major global challenge. He referred to fund raising by diaspora communities mainly in the West which was fuelling the illicit arms trafficking and the growth of terrorism, in this context he spoke of the need for closer co-operation in training, information gathering, intelligence and sharing of experience in dealing with terrorism in areas such as arms smuggling, maritime and airspace security, human trafficking procurement of arms and ammunition, illegal transfer of funds, bio terrorism, conscription of children, use of non profit organizations such as charities, criminalization, glorification of terrorism etc.

He emphasized that Sri Lanka could speak from her own experience about the urgent need for closer cooperation between member countries to deal with terrorism. The Minister referred to the report of the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding which was chaired by Prof. Amartya Sen outlining approaches to dealing with different aspects of terrorism and observed that it would be an appropriate basis for discussion on counter terrorism issues.

Foreign Minister Bogollagama also addressed Sri Lanka’s concerns to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers on the issue of climate change. He highlighted that it had a direct bearing on Sri Lanka as an island and referred to sea level rise and increasingly adverse weather patterns affecting heavily populated coastal zone areas. He went on to highlight how it’s impact was being manifested by extreme whether conditions.

He reminded that green house gas emissions by Sri Lanka were insignificant in comparison and considered international action towards adaptation to climate change to be important whilst complying with relevant international conventions.

On trade issues Minister Bogollagama urged Commonwealth Governments to work towards the early conclusion of the Doha Round by being more flexible to allow for new trading opportunities.

He encouraged the Commonwealth to play a role given its composition which is representative of the developed and developing countries. He also highlighted that the aid for trade concept which is gaining ground should help the developing countries to build the supply side capacity and trade related infrastructure that is needed.

Minister Bogollagama also focused on the rising price of oil and the negative effect it was having on petroleum import dependent developing countries like Sri Lanka. He called on the Commonwealth to take the initiative in dialoguing with the petroleum exporting countries that a portion of the substantial surplus generated by them be transferred to a global fund to help developing countries dependent on fuel imports for their energy sector to develop alternate sources of energy.

The Commonwealth Foreign Ministers meeting is scheduled to conclude today (22nd November). The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will open on Friday 23rd November. President Mahinda Rajapaksa will lead the Sri Lanka delegation to CHOGM.