Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe is set to participate in the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Uganda, even as he pledged to send a navy ship to the Red Sea to join a Western coalition against Yemen’s Houthis.
The NAM, a forum comprising states not formally aligned with any major power bloc is the second-largest grouping of states globally after the United Nations. The summit, scheduled from January 15th to 20th, is expected to convene leaders from approximately 120 countries worldwide, with Palestine pushing for the bloc to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
However, president Wickremesinghe's participation in the summit has sparked controversy, particularly in light of Sri Lanka’s move to send military support against the Houthis who have been targeting Israel and Israeli-linked vessels to push for a stop to the ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Read more: Sri Lanka to the rescue? Navy to deploy ship to tackle Houthis in Red Sea
Speaking to the media in Mankulam, Tamil National Alliance MP M. A. Sumanthiran voiced concerns over the Wickremesinghe's approach to international affairs, stating,
"The President, who goes to those meetings claiming that non-alignment is the policy of our country, does not seem to know how not to poke his nose into the problems in the Middle East."
Expressing discontent, Sumanthiran criticized the Wickremesinghe for committing the Sri Lankan Navy to the Red Sea conflict without parliamentary consultation, warning of potential consequences.
"If a country has a policy of non-alignment, we should stick to it," he emphasized.
Wickremesinghe is currently in Switzerland and participating in the World Economic Forum.
