Thu, Feb 12, 2015, 09:55 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.Feb 12 (FP) The surprising decision by the new government of Sri Lanka to reverse course and support a billion-dollar Chinese port project underscores the long shadow of Beijing�s influence in the region, even in countries seemingly determined to push back.
More importantly, the green light for the port project highlights China's determination to secure access to a network of coastal installations across the Indian Ocean, a key part of President Xi Jinping's own pivot to the West.
Last week, an otherwise mundane civil works project leapt into the headlines when newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena abandoned campaign pledges to block Chinese plans for a $1.4 billion port city in Colombo, on the western coast of the island nation. That raised eyebrows, because his election was widely seen as a blow to China's budding friendship with Sri Lanka; former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had steadily moved Sri Lanka closer to Beijing.
Last month, just after taking office, new Sri Lankan government officials had expressed concern about the security implications of the Chinese project, which Xi launched with great fanfare on a visit last September. Within weeks, however, Sirisena gave the go-ahead for the port development in order to avoid, as Sri Lankan officials said, a "misunderstanding" with China. (Just to further muddy the waters, the new prime minister tried to walk back the approval late last week in comments to Parliament, but the Chinese firm set to build the port is convinced it will now go ahead.)
Colombo Port City is about a whole lot more than a deep-water harbor, golf course, and Formula One racetrack. It's part and parcel of one of Xi's signature foreign-policy initiatives: a double-barreled, $40 billion plan to deepen China's physical and economic links with neighbors to the West.
That includes development of new road and rail links between China, Central Asia, and the Middle East - dubbed the "New Silk Road." The other half of the plan is a network of commercial port facilities in the Indian Ocean, meant to connect the dots between China and a region that is increasingly important to it -the"Maritime Silk Road." China is heavily dependent on the Middle East and Africa for energy and natural resources, and is understandably anxious to safeguard those vital sea lanes. Xi launched the Maritime Silk Road notion on a visit to Indonesia in 2013, and again heavily touted it on a regional road show late last year.
But the problem is that China's lurch to the West, especially its efforts to increase its physical presence in the Indian Ocean, have neighbors like India worried. A port visit to Colombo last year by a Chinese submarine set pulses racing in New Delhi. Many Indian security analysts see the Maritime Silk Road as an effort to encircle the subcontinent.
more/source: http://ift.tt/1EhtWtN
More importantly, the green light for the port project highlights China's determination to secure access to a network of coastal installations across the Indian Ocean, a key part of President Xi Jinping's own pivot to the West.
Last week, an otherwise mundane civil works project leapt into the headlines when newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena abandoned campaign pledges to block Chinese plans for a $1.4 billion port city in Colombo, on the western coast of the island nation. That raised eyebrows, because his election was widely seen as a blow to China's budding friendship with Sri Lanka; former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had steadily moved Sri Lanka closer to Beijing.
Last month, just after taking office, new Sri Lankan government officials had expressed concern about the security implications of the Chinese project, which Xi launched with great fanfare on a visit last September. Within weeks, however, Sirisena gave the go-ahead for the port development in order to avoid, as Sri Lankan officials said, a "misunderstanding" with China. (Just to further muddy the waters, the new prime minister tried to walk back the approval late last week in comments to Parliament, but the Chinese firm set to build the port is convinced it will now go ahead.)
Colombo Port City is about a whole lot more than a deep-water harbor, golf course, and Formula One racetrack. It's part and parcel of one of Xi's signature foreign-policy initiatives: a double-barreled, $40 billion plan to deepen China's physical and economic links with neighbors to the West.
That includes development of new road and rail links between China, Central Asia, and the Middle East - dubbed the "New Silk Road." The other half of the plan is a network of commercial port facilities in the Indian Ocean, meant to connect the dots between China and a region that is increasingly important to it -the"Maritime Silk Road." China is heavily dependent on the Middle East and Africa for energy and natural resources, and is understandably anxious to safeguard those vital sea lanes. Xi launched the Maritime Silk Road notion on a visit to Indonesia in 2013, and again heavily touted it on a regional road show late last year.
But the problem is that China's lurch to the West, especially its efforts to increase its physical presence in the Indian Ocean, have neighbors like India worried. A port visit to Colombo last year by a Chinese submarine set pulses racing in New Delhi. Many Indian security analysts see the Maritime Silk Road as an effort to encircle the subcontinent.
more/source: http://ift.tt/1EhtWtN
China, Sri Lanka, and the Maritime Great Game
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