SINGAPORE: Three cyclones washed over Asia, killing over a thousand people just last week. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Northern Malaysia are the nations that have suffered the most from tropical cyclones.
Sri Lanka, a former British colony and island nation in the Indian Ocean, is one of the neutral nations that maintained Swiss-style neutrality between two nuclear-powered nations in the Indo-Pakistan relationship. Both countries favour Sri Lanka in different aspects. So, India, as the closest nation, which is just 32 km apart from the Indian mainland, became the first responder to Sri Lanka.
When Cyclone Ditwah hit Sri Lanka, two Indian warships were already docked at Colombo Port for an international review as Sri Lankan navy celebrates its 75th anniversary on the 27th of November 2025. As New Delhi quickly announced HADR OPS Sagar Bandu, the Vikrant-class Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and Nilgiri-class stealth-guided missile frigates INS Udaygiri were ordered to repurpose their mission to join Operation Sagar Bandu. The first act was handing over humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka while Cyclone Ditwah weather was in progress on the 28th of November 2025. Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar is personally involved, as he always is, as a passionate diplomat. Later they deployed Chetak helicopters and Mi17 helicopters to life-saving rescue operations. Operation has continued since then.
PNS Saif – a Zulfiquar-class guided missile frigate was also docked in Colombo for international review. So, Islamabad ordered PNS Saif to switch from a ceremonial mission to a humanitarian mission. Several aid packages were delivered by the Colombo High Commission of Pakistan, and their C130 military cargo aircraft arrived in Colombo with more aid and an elite rescue ops team.
Meanwhile, Indian and India-based international media stations had picked up a photograph posted by the Pakistani High Commission in Colombo that has a label that says “EXP 10/2024” that spread like wildfire. Later Pakistan had to clarify that it wasn’t the original packing of content, and they just used an old set of bags.
Pakistani media accused India, by quoting Islamabad, of delaying 60 hours for their special aircraft that was carrying humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka. Pakistani military cargo aircraft wanted special permission to fly via Indian airspace. However, Delhi confirmed that this DCR (Diplomatic Clearance Request) request under HADR condition has been approved under ETP in 4 hours and 30 minutes, which is highly unusual for the usual time window of 72-120 hours via HC or embassy to MFA or MOD.
We can clearly observe a cold tension between India and Pakistan over assisting their neighbouring nation Sri Lanka. Apart from that, it has shown how powerful social media and public relations are in diplomacy despite all other aspects. As Westvu, we discussed how Pakistan failed to maintain the proper diplomatic PR and communication when the Pahalgam terrorist attack happened in April 2025 in the Indian province of Kashmir. However, Indian diplomats maintained the upper ground, and Pakistan did not get any closer.
But, in the Colombo Cold War in late Nov 2025, Pakistani diplomats played very well in their PR & communication battle against highly skilled Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and his team. India also played as usually great, and India is always recognised as the natural winner due to their many advantages. It is worthy to note Pakistan’s improvement for any future case study on Diplomatic communication.
