Sri Lankan leader seeks to disarm India's China fears
Sri Lanka's president arrives in India on Thursday for his first visit to the regional powerhouse, with concerns mounting in New Delhi over China's increasing influence in the strategically placed but financially bankrupt island. New Sri Lankan leaders usually travel to India within a few weeks of taking office, but Ranil Wickremesinghe's trip comes exactly a year after he became president following the toppling of his predecessor at the height of an unprecedented economic crisis.
As Sri Lanka drifted towards chaos with daily street protests over shortages of food, fuel and medicines, India poured nearly $4 billion in aid to restore supplies and stabilise the island. The loans and credit lines were granted despite Sri Lanka defaulting on its $46 billion foreign debt and losing access to international financial markets.
«Without India's help Sri Lanka could have degenerated into anarchy,» said political commentator Victor Ivan. «The president will not only have to show gratitude, but reassure that we will not do anything to hurt them,» he added.
«At the same time, Sri Lanka can't drop China because they are also a very important economic partner.» China is Sri Lanka's biggest bilateral creditor and a Chinese firm acquired a 99-year lease on the southern port of Hambantota after Colombo was unable to repay a huge loan from Beijing to build it. A $1.4 billion land reclamation project next to Colombo port — the biggest-ever foreign investment in Sri Lanka — has raised Indian fears that Beijing could use it as a listening post.
Initially some of it was to have been Chinese sovereign territory. Sri Lanka lies halfway along the main international shipping route between Europe and East Asia, with Colombo and Hambantota the only
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