India silently works ties with Sri Lanka to push back China

Spread the love

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, June 10: Sri Lanka appears to have moved past the stormy days in its relations with India over the docking of Yuan Wang 5, a widely acclaimed spy ship, at the Hambantota Port. With India dropping deep anchor to stabilise the economy of Sri Lanka, the island nation is now stitching a much closer relations with New Delhi.

By extending crisis time support of $4 billion and speedy outreach to the multilateral agencies for bail out package, including from International Monetary Fund (IMF), India has been hailed to have stabilized the Sri Lanka economy. Colombo had defaulted last year in servicing the sovereign foreign debt last year, triggering a civil unrest, which ousted the clan of Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power in the island nation.

Sri Lankan waters were the hunting backyard of the Chinese naval ships, which cruised at will to spy over the Indian defence assets. The strategic observers have noted that China had built vital port assets from East Asia to Africa to throw a ring around India as part of the larger game plan.

China analyst B. Kardon in his book ‘China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order’ has stated the push of Beijing to control the maritime order by flouting the rules-based order for its advantage, while underlining that the Communist nation sees itself as above the law, and beyond accountability, especially of the smaller states.

In this backdrop, India steering Sri Lanka away from the Chinese influence even while it’s early day to reach any definitive conclusion given the ability of Beijing to bribe the political leadership of smaller nations is yielding positive results.

Sri Lanka and India are further firming up maritime and air services connectivity for the benefits of the people of the two countries. Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay, recently held a meeting with Sri Lanka’s Ports, Shipping, and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to hail the successful completion of 100 flights between Chennai and Jaffna by Alliance Air.

India has become the top source of tourists for Sri Lanka. Collapse of tourism in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the key reasons for the collapse of the Sri Lankan economy last year. With rapidly growing tourism and travel industry in Sri Lanka, India is ramping up the facilities, as plans are underway to increase the number of flight operations between the two nations. India is also considering the request of Sri Lankan government for a concessional loan to extend the runway at Palaly Airport.

Sri Lanka has also expressed willingness to receive international standard passenger ships from any Indian port, which will also help Lankans to visit Indian pilgrimage destinations.