ties, largely the result of improved Sri Lankan intelligence and the acquisition of a handful of large patrol vessels to intercept LTTE arms shipments. The result was a government effort to end the conflict with military means. Initial government military success, the access to relatively cheap arms supplies and the knowledge that the LTTE had more problems than ever before to smuggle in supplies in order to continue the war at the level of past years, strengthened the belief in a military solution and finally in mid-2009, the LTTE was militarily defeated. At the same time, the Sri Lankan decision to opt for a military solution was openly criticised by many countries, including several suppliers of arms. One may, therefore, ask if states supplying weapons to the government were not going directly against one of the criteria on arms transfers they have previously agreed on, that is, do not deliver weapons to a state in conflict if those deliveries will only prolong the war.100 However, this contradiction did not lead to serious discussions on national or international levels on the desirability of arms transfers to Sri Lanka, despite the fact that at the same time discussions started in the framework of a possible future Arms Trade Treaty that would provide a legal agreement on responsible arms trade. The end of the war did not mean the end of arms procurement. Several orders continued and military spending remained high. However, large orders from China and Pakistan were cancelled and military ties with India improved – indi cating that Sri Lanka was not interested in becoming a pawn in the Indo-Sino and Indo-Pakistani rivalry that would only damage its relation with neighbouring India.
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100 The principle of not supplying weapons to parties in armed conflict if such deliveries are likely to prolong the fighting or increase its intensity is included in the P5 Guidelines for Conventional Arms Transfers agreed on by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5) in 1991 (http://www.sipri.org/contents/expcon/unp5_ london91.html), the EU Code of Conduct for Arms Exports adopted in 1998 (http://www.sipri.org/contents/ expcon/eucode.html) and the OCSE Criteria on Conventional Arms Transfers adopted in 1994 (http://www.sipri. org/contents/expcon/oscecat.html). In addition, the General Assembly Guidelines for International Arms Transfers adopted in 1996 underline the need for peaceful solution of conflict (http://www.sipri.org/contents/expcon/acn10. html).