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India is planning to invest in a colonial-era Sri Lankan oil-storage facility, continuing with its plans to enhance its naval interests in the Indian Ocean, meanwhile pushing China back in the race. Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/military-defense/Indian-Ocean-cant-be-Indias-backyard-says-China/articleshow/47897529.cms">Indian Ocean can’t be India’s backyard, says China</a> A unit of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/markets/economy/state-run-oil-firms-can-now-raise-prices-of-kerosene-and-cooking-gas-every-month/articleshow/58219384.cms">Indian Oil</a>, India’s largest refiner, is being readied to help fund the $350 million development of what would be a facility with 84 tanks, situated at the strategically located <keyword id="4079412" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Trincomalee-port">Trincomalee port</keyword> on Sri Lanka's east coast. Moreover, talks are on between the two countries to set up a refinery in the island nation, said Shyam Bohra, MD (Lanka IOC). Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/India-wants-to-challenge-China-to-become-Asias-leading-shipping-hub/articleshow/53431603.cms">India wants to challenge China to become Asia’s leading shipping hub</a> Indian Prime Minister will be meeting his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe in New Delhi tomorrow, and would also be flying to Sri Lanka next month. The reason behind India's interests in the Sri Lankan port could be more strategic than economic, as it looks forward to displacing the hefty investment that China is doing in Sri Lanka, says a report from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-25/india-nips-at-china-s-heels-in-race-to-collect-lanka-port-assets">Bloomberg</a>. In the recent past, China has expanded both militarily and economically in the region, having docked its submarines in Colombo. As per analysts, India didn’t act fast in making big investments in Trincomalee for decades, and it could be because of the government being content with a small base which helps keep enemies out. Lanka IOC is managing the 15 operational tanks at the Trincomalee port, along with a lubricant blending unit, while discussions are on to jointly develop part of the tank farm with 84 more tanks, bringing the total capacity to almost 7.5 million barrels. Talking of China, it has already built a port at <keyword id="212453" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Hambantota">Hambantota</keyword> in Sri Lanka's south, and is also investing heavily in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/India-must-be-worried-about-Chinas-46-billion-gift-to-Pakistan-Know-why/articleshow/46997631.cms">Gwadar port</a> in Pakistan along CPEC. Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/china-to-fund-weapon-building-in-pakistan/articleshow/57690131.cms">China to fund weapon building in Pakistan</a> On the other hand, India’s progress with a nearby port at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/markets/economy/India-deal-for-Chabahar-Port/articleshow/52402008.cms">Chabahar in Iran</a> has been slow as well. Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Why-Iran-nuclear-deal-may-lead-to-windfall-gains-for-India/articleshow/48318611.cms">Why Iran nuclear deal may lead to windfall gains for India</a> (Image source AsianVoice)

India pushing back China in race to collect Lanka port assets

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Sri Lanka navySri Lankan navy personnel welcome the Chinese navy ship Hai Yangdao, October 4, 2018.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>India, Japan, and the US have taken notice of growing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region and are looking to counter it.</li><li>Sri Lanka, an island country strategically located near major shipping lines, has become a focus of that effort.</li><li>China has major interests in ports there, and the US and Japan have expanded their security cooperation.</li></ul>China's growing presence in the Pacific and Indian oceans has its neighbors on guard, and their competition for influence has kept Sri Lanka's capital and port city of Colombo busy this month.On October 1, a day after Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier Kaga, the country's largest warship, and destroyer Inazuma <a href="http://news.navy.lk/eventnews/2018/09/30/201809301620/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sailed into Colombo</a>, the ships' commanding officers and the commander of Japan's escort flotilla four, Rear Admiral Tatsuya Fukuda, <a href="http://news.navy.lk/eventnews/2018/10/02/201810021040/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">met with the head</a> of the Sri Lankan navy, sharing "views on matters of bilateral importance.""Japan's government is promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific and this deployment in the Asia Pacific is a component of that strategy," Fukuda <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-as-chinese-influence-grows-japanese-warship-visits-sri-lanka-2018-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Reuters</a> as his ships sailed to Sri Lanka. Japanese naval vessels have stopped in Sri Lanka 50 times over the past five years, he said.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Sri Lanka navySri Lanka navy personnel welcome Japanese navy ships Kaga and Inazuma in Colombo, September 30, 2018.</div></div></div>On October 4, the same day the JMSDF ships departed, Chinese navy ship Hai Yangdao arrived for a four-day "<a href="http://news.navy.lk/eventnews/2018/10/04/201810041535/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">goodwill visit</a>," according to Sri Lanka's navy, which said the Chinese ship's skipper and the commander of Sri Lanka's western naval area "held a cordial discussion on matters of mutual interest."Sri Lanka sits not far from shipping lines through the Indian Ocean that carry much of the world's <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2017-09/sri-lanka-open-door-indian-ocean" target="_blank" rel="noopener">container traffic</a> and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-to-buy-submarines-amid-china-naval-activity-in-the-indian-ocean-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">majority of China's energy</a> imports. Its location has made it an area of interest for countries throughout the region.Chinese <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinas-xi-offers-fresh-295-million-grant-to-sri-lanka-in-push-for-dominance-2018-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assistance</a> to the country <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-warship-gift-to-sri-lanka-amid-growing-competition-with-india-2018-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has grown over the past decade</a>, after the US ended direct military aid over Sri Lanka's poor human-rights record. Earlier this year, China said it would give Sri Lanka <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-warship-gift-to-sri-lanka-amid-growing-competition-with-india-2018-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a naval frigate as a gift</a>.That relationship has become more of a concern for India, Japan, and others in recent years, especially after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/indias-concern-with-beijing-expansion-grows-with-sri-lanka-port-deal-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sri Lanka granted China control</a> of the port of Hambantota for 99 years in 2017.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Google MapsSri Lanka sits near important shipping lines through which much of Asia's energy supplies pass on their way to the Malacca Strait.</div></div></div>India in particular is worried Beijing will use the port for military purposes - China and Sri Lanka <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-sri-lanka-to-shift-naval-base-to-china-controlled-port-city-2018-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">both deny</a> that will happen - and to augment the presence it has elsewhere in the region, including at a port in Pakistan and a military outpost in Djibouti. New Delhi has watched warily as Chinese submarines and other warships have passed through the area over the past several years. India's security posture has undergone what has been called "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-to-buy-submarines-amid-china-naval-activity-in-the-indian-ocean-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a tectonic shift</a>" toward the country's southern approaches in recent years.On October 6, Sri Lankan navy ships SLNS Sagara, an offshore patrol ship, and SLNS Suranimala, a missile ship, <a href="http://news.navy.lk/eventnews/2018/10/07/201810071435/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">both left Colombo</a> on their way to India for a four-day goodwill visit that was to include training exercises.Japan has also sought a larger role in the Indian Ocean region. Tokyo has expanded security partnerships and plans to spend hundreds of billions on infrastructure projects there - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-developing-projects-in-indian-ocean-amid-china-india-rivalry-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ambitions that rival</a> China's.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Yamada Taro/Wikimedia CommonsThe Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's Kaga helicopter carrier.</div></div></div>The arrival of Kaga was purportedly meant as a sign to Sri Lanka that Japan <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-as-chinese-influence-grows-japanese-warship-visits-sri-lanka-2018-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was willing to deploy</a> major military assets to an area of the world where China's influence is growing.After the Kaga's departure, Japan's navy was to begin four days of joint exercises with Sri Lanka's navy in the Indian Ocean meant to strengthen cooperation between the two forces. Sources <a href="http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004874269" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Japan Times</a> that it was also meant as a message to China, though a MSDF said no specific country as being targeted.As a part of the exercise, Sri Lankan officers will board the Kaga to observe Japanese training and to exchange information on humanitarian operations. (Officers from the US Navy's 7th Fleet <a href="https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20181008_04/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are also</a> on hand.)"It's rare for the MSDF to allow military officials of other countries to board any of its vessels during an exercise at sea," a public-relations official of the <keyword id="6354810" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="defense">Defense</keyword> Ministry's Maritime Staff Office <a href="http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004874269" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Japan Times.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Sri Lanka navySri Lanka navy personnel welcome the US Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy, April 25, 2018.</div></div></div>Since the 2015 electoral defeat of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who presided over <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-warship-gift-to-sri-lanka-amid-growing-competition-with-india-2018-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a number of questionable deals with China</a>, the US has also looked for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-wants-to-lure-a-strategic-south-asian-island-nation-away-from-china-2015-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ways to rebuild ties</a> with Colombo.Washington, along with Tokyo and New Delhi, has reportedly taken an interest in the port of Trincomalee on Sri Lanka's eastern coast as a way <a href="https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/5/14785/US-And-Japan-Look-at--Sri-Lankan-Port-To-Checkmate-China" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to counter</a> China's presence at Hambantota and around the region.Trincomalee <a href="http://news.navy.lk/eventnews/2018/04/25/201804251845/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saw a visit</a> by the US Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy in April, and in August - a few weeks after Sri Lanka took part in the US-led Rim of the Pacific military exercise for <a href="http://www.dailynews.lk/2018/06/04/local/152803/sri-lanka-rimpac-first-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the first time</a> - the amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/image/4673538/uss-anchorage-pulls-into-sri-lanka" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pulled into Trincomalee</a> with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit for a security cooperation exercise. (Such exercises have been done <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2017-09/sri-lanka-open-door-indian-ocean" target="_blank" rel="noopener">before</a>.)August <a href="http://www.adaderana.lk/news/49536/japanese-minister-of-defense-visits-eastern-naval-command" target="_blank" rel="noopener">also saw</a> a visit to Sri Lanka by Japan's defense minister, who stopped in Trincomalee and Hambantota. That visit came a few months after the Japanese foreign minister visited for the first time in 16 years."The message to China is that Japan, with India and the United States and of course Sri Lanka, has the capacity to engage militarily," Nozomu Yoshitomi, a professor at Nihon University and a former Ground Self Defence Force major general who advised the Japanese cabinet, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-as-chinese-influence-grows-japanese-warship-visits-sri-lanka-2018-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Reuters</a> this month. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-japan-land-hopping-robots-on-asteroid-ryugu-2018-9">Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

The US and Japan are competing with China, and they've all got a small island country in their sights

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Manish SwarupIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in Goa, India, October 16, 2016.</div></div></div><ul><li>China has been expanding its foreign involvement, in part through development projects around the world.</li><li>Beijing's growing influence has concerned its neighbors - chief among them India and Japan.</li><li>To counter China, Tokyo is looking for a bigger role in the region, working with India to get it.</li></ul>China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean region worries India, which has sought to counter Beijing's influence there. But India is not the only country in Asia looking to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ways-countries-in-asia-are-responding-to-china-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">balance against a rising China</a>.Japan, which has long deferred to the US, is now pursuing a bigger role, expanding security partnerships in the region and boosting its involvement in infrastructure projects - many of which rival China's own projects.In 2015, Tokyo announced plans to spend hundreds of billions on infrastructure projects in Asia, Oceania, and Africa in coming years, and since 2016, Japan has committed <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly $8 billion</a> to projects to develop ports and related infrastructure around the Indian Ocean."The scale of [Japan's] infrastructure investments in the region rivals, and sometimes exceeds, that of China," David Brewster, a specialist in South Asian and Indian Ocean strategic affairs at the Australian National University, <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote this week</a> for the Lowy Institute's Interpreter.Such projects are part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Strategy, meant to further connect Asia and Africa and the Pacific and Indian Oceans while promoting stability and prosperity.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Adnan AbidiJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in New Delhi, December 12, 2015.</div></div></div>FOIP projects currently <a href="http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004465715?m=jnnl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">under consideration</a> include a joint project with India and Sri Lanka to expand an existing port at Trincomalee in Sri Lanka, a joint project with Myanmar and Thailand to build a new port and special economic zone around Dawei in Myanmar, and a project with Bangladesh to build a new port at Matabari to handle half that country's cargo volume.Japan has started behind-the-scenes talks with those governments, and Japan's International Cooperation Agency has started drafting plans for those projects, <a href="http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004465715?m=jnnl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.While China recently acquired a 99-year lease of a Sri Lankan port at Hambantota, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/indias-concern-with-beijing-expansion-grows-with-sri-lanka-port-deal-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised ire in India</a>, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that China failed to make progress on similar projects in Myanmar and Bangladesh due to Japan's development plans.Delhi helped influence Bangladesh's decision to award the Matarbari project to Tokyo, and Japan and India <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean" target="_blank" rel="noopener">could cooperate</a> on future projects, including at Trincomalee and on Iran's Chabahar port, which India sees as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/india-steering-a-tricky-path-through-us-allies-and-foes-in-south-asia-2017-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a valuable link to central Asian markets</a> (though that project could be affected by US sanctions on Iran.)Japan's interest in a bigger regional role <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/09/japan-takes-the-lead-in-countering-chinas-belt-and-road/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">isn't new</a>, but has grown in recent months, amid <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ways-countries-in-asia-are-responding-to-china-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doubts about US policy</a> in the region. But, Brewster writes, Japan's approach is <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in clear competition</a> with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).The BRI has been criticized as being unsustainable and lacking transparency, and China has been accused of using it to further "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-influence-pacific-western-countries-push-back-2018-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt-trap diplomacy</a>." US officials have warned that Beijing is "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-weaponizing-capital-us-navy-chief-awake-at-night-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">weaponizing capital</a>" through the initiative, and the International Monetary Fund has warned China and its possible partners about deals that could <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-influence-pacific-western-countries-push-back-2018-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">create mounting debt</a>.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ReutersProjects subsumed under One Belt, One Road program by China, as of March 2017.</div></div></div>Japan has said its approach is distinct from the BRI in important ways, according to Brewster, including its emphasis on safety, reliability, social and environmental considerations, and on aligning with local development goals and a broader rules-based order. Japan also includes India as a partner and economic hub, whereas China's BRI avoids India.India and Japan also announced the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor in May 2017 to further expand ties. It was supported by several African countries, including South Africa, and is poised to be another alternative to China's BRI. Beijing has tried <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/60345807.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to undercut it</a>, pushing India and South Africa to merge the project with the BRICS platform, which would exclude Japan and dilute Delhi's influence.There are <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/09/japan-takes-the-lead-in-countering-chinas-belt-and-road/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doubts</a> about whether Japan has the resources to compete with China's infrastructure push, and even though Japan has positioned its offerings as alternatives to China's, Tokyo hasn't precluded future cooperation - Japanese officials <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2017/11/aimai-japans-ambiguous-approach-to-chinas-belt-and-road/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have even said</a> the BRI could ultimately benefit the global economy, depending on how it's implemented.But there is little doubt Tokyo and Delhi are have their eyes on countering their bigger neighbor."Japan is concerned about a rising Chinese profile beyond the Western Pacific, and India is equally concerned about the strategic implications of China's commercial engagements in its neighborhood," Darshana Baruah, an analyst at Carnegie India, <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/09/japan-takes-the-lead-in-countering-chinas-belt-and-road/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Foreign Policy</a> earlier this year. "These projects are aimed at creating an alternative to China's Belt and Road." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-yuan-not-euro-could-become-global-currency-dollar-china-usa-eu-dharshini-david-2018-4">Why China's Yuan, not the Euro, could become the dominant global currency</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Japan is quietly gaining an edge amid a growing competition between India and China

<ul class="generic-article__summary--ul content--ul"><li class="generic-article__summary--li content--li">Incoming leader says he will not allow the island nation to be pulled into a proxy contest among the world’s major powers</li><li class="generic-article__summary--li content--li">But analysts foresee a cautious creep towards the pro-Beijing policies of predecessor and brother Mahinda</li></ul>Sri Lanka’s freshly elected president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will take a “low key” approach in restoring the cosy ties the country enjoyed with China during the 2005-2015 presidency of his brother, analysts said, as the new leader stressed on Monday that he would adopt a strictly neutral foreign policy. Paul Staniland, a prominent scholar of Sri Lankan politics, said Gotabaya was more likely to “spread his bets by reaching out to a variety of powerful states in the region and beyond”. Expectations before Saturday’s elections had been that he would not only sweep the polls against his main rival, Sajith Premadasa, but that he would also swiftly revert back to the overtly pro-Beijing foreign policy of his brother Mahinda. In his inaugural speech, the president said he would not allow the island nation to be pulled into a proxy contest among the world’s major powers. The 70-year-old won 52.25 per cent of the nearly 16 million votes cast, with the country’s majority Sinhala population overwhelmingly backing his platform that touted a return to his brother’s strongman leadership style and a focus on national security. The Rajapaksa brothers – alongside their two other siblings Basil and Chamal – are immensely popular among Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese population because of their role in crushing Tamil separatists and ending a 26-year civil war in 2009. “We will remain neutral in our foreign relations, and stay out of any conflict of world powers,” said Gotabaya after being sworn in on Monday. During the tenure of the outgoing president Maithripala Sirisena and the current Prime Minister <keyword id="300704" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ranil-Wickremesinghe">Ranil Wickremesinghe</keyword> – Sri Lanka’s key political mover and shaker of the last five years – the consensus has been that Colombo prioritised ties with the United States over Beijing. But foreign policy researchers said that a return towards a China-friendly policy was not so clear-cut. For one, there remains public trepidation about China from the Mahinda era, during which Sri Lanka chalked up large public debt due to the former president’s penchant for using cheap Beijing-backed financing to fund mega-infrastructure projects. A quarter of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt, which stands at 45 per cent of GDP, is owed to China. Among the projects built using Chinese financing are the now-infamous deep water port and airport in Hambantota, the Rajapaksa clan’s stronghold. The Sirisena government in 2017 was forced to hand over control of the seaport to Beijing as part of a debt-for-equity swap. The Rajapaksas’ dalliance with China also rattled regional power India, and Mahinda has previously accused New Delhi’s top spy agency of engineering his shock 2015 defeat to Sirisena. “This round is going to be about playing things in low key for China, but playing nevertheless,” said Jabin Jacob, an international relations professor at India’s <keyword id="44903" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shiv-Nadar">Shiv Nadar</keyword> University. “Perhaps the Rajapaksas have learned from the first time that there are consequences to playing the China card with India,” Jacob added. “It also does not help that the perception is that Chinese projects such as the Hambantota port and airport do not make money and have cost Sri Lanka.” Hemant Shivakumar, a senior analyst for India and South Asia at the consultancy Control Risks, offered a similar assessment – suggesting the new president is not likely to make dramatic changes to foreign policy even as he seeks to rebuild strained ties with China. “[Gotabaya] Rajapaksa is rightly perceived to be pro-China, and he will want to refocus the relationship and bring it back on track, while being cognisant of these [debt-related] issues,” he said. The analyst added that there was likely to be a “convergence of interests” between Gotabaya and China, with Beijing eager to show the new government that it was a “good development partner” and the new president hoping to show he would engage with the Asian power on Sri Lanka’s terms. Staniland, an associate professor specialising in South Asian security issues and political violence at the University of Chicago, said a likely effort by the new president to present Sri Lanka as open to having “multiple friends” would be in part due to “lessons of the past and a related desire not to rely too heavily on China”. He said it would be unsurprising if “in the medium term we see an overall tilt back towards China even as Colombo maintains a ‘portfolio’ approach to its international relations”. N. Sathiyamoorthy, a researcher based in India’s southern <keyword id="20154" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="tamil-nadu">Tamil Nadu</keyword> state close to Sri Lanka, offered an altogether different take – suggesting that the outgoing government of Sirisena and Wikremesinghe was in fact more China-leaning compared to the Rajapaksas. He said Mahinda merely signed the Hambantota deals that had been “hanging in the air for decades” and that “it is quite likely that others in his place would have done the same”. The same could not be said about the outgoing government, Sathiyamoorthy added. He said the Sirisena government, while blaming the Rajapaksas for plunging the country into a “debt trap”, was ultimately responsible for green-lighting the 2017 deal that handed over Sri Lankan land to China on a long-term lease. One mistake that the researcher – head of the <keyword id="12864" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chennai">Chennai</keyword> chapter of the Observer Research Foundation think tank – said the Rajapaksas were unlikely to repeat was their “indiscretion” in allowing Chinese submarines to be berthed in Colombo in 2014. Located off the tip of southern India, Sri Lanka has found itself increasingly a theatre for the US-China strategic tussle, with both superpowers seeking to strengthen their presence in the Indian Ocean. The Sirisena government – in particular Prime Minister Wikremesinghe – blocked further dockings of Chinese submarines but found itself having to furiously push back against rumours that it had <keyword id="7016615" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Secret-Plans">secret plans</keyword> to let the US build a naval base in the eastern region of Trincomalee. Apart from policies towards the world’s two superpowers, the new president’s view of Indian Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>’s government will be parsed by observers. Shivakumar, the New Delhi-based Control Risk analyst, said India would be scrutinising the new president’s national security policies in view of Sri Lanka’s extremist attacks earlier this year, as well as his policies towards the minority Tamils. Gotabaya, who like his brother Mahinda has denied allegations of presiding over <keyword id="52767" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Human-rights">human rights</keyword> abuses as they spearheaded the bloody civil war victory over Tamil separatists in 2009, has said he will significantly strengthen security and intelligence agencies that he says were sidelined by Sirisena’s administration. Jacob said he expected Gotabaya to visit India followed by China in his first 100 days in office. “But it will probably be China that will load him with the goodies,” the China-India watcher said. This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: New president set for low-key china approach

You Searched For "Trincomalee port" and got 4 results

India pushing back China in race to collect Lanka port assets

BI India Bureau

The US and Japan are competing with China, and they've all got a small island country in their sights

Christopher Woody

Japan is quietly gaining an edge amid a growing competition between India and China

Christopher Woody

Sri Lanka’s tilt towards China expected to be ‘low key’ as new president Gotabaya Rajapaksa takes the reins

SCMP

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