Squeezed by Regional Superpowers

JUL 09 2018

Three decades of war made Sri Lanka to depend on the militarily advanced countries to enhance its arsenals. Purchasing of military hardware to deal with the war in the North and the East had led even to an arms race in the Island nation.

With the country’s economy in dire straits, allocations were made on a mega scale for defence expenditure, neglecting the development of the country.

However, despite bringing an end to the war, Sri Lanka has now squeezed into the hands of the regional superpowers such as India and China.

When the war was in progress in the Island, China and India remained militarily supportive of Sri Lanka.

As the astonishing developments occurred in the geo-political scene globally, when Sri Lanka engaged in the war India and China emerged as economic superpowers and the China’s growth within a short period even stunned the giant economies globally.

So, in the guise of helping to rebuild war-torn Sri Lanka, the two regional superpowers, India and China, with their vested interests have flexed their muscles to compete towards establishing their regional supremacy in the strategically important Island nation and the latest New York Times revelations have highlighted how far the Chinese infiltration has taken place in the Island.

The latest shocking revelation with regard to the internal politics of Sri Lanka is that China funded both major presidential candidates at the presidential poll of 2015.

According to high ranking Police sources, the Police sleuths had stopped digging too deep into the investigations on Chinese funding at the 2015 Presidential election after finding that both major candidates were funded by China.

Already China has come under criticism from the West for creating artificial Islands in the South China Sea. So, the Colombo Port City project and the Hambantota Harbour Project in the Southern tip of the Island have also been seen as part of the Chinese expansion in the South Asian region by the West and it is evident from the latest New York Times article.

On the other hand the Chinese involvement in post-war Sri Lanka has made India to be concerned over its regional security as the country is already experiencing the Chinese presence in Tibet and in a `tug o’ war’ in the State of Arunachala Pradesh with China over territorial border issues.

Therefore, with the Chinese presence in Sri Lanka, India feels that the Subcontinent is in a state surrounded by China.

The competence of both regional superpowers in taking the upper hand in Sri Lanka has made the Island nation in a squeezed position of being unable to raise its head from the grip of both countries.

India already making its presence felt in the Northern tip of Sri Lanka with its engagement in reconstructing the Palaly Airport in the Jaffna Peninsula now seems to have succeeded in taking control of the loss- making Chinese-built Mattala Airport in a 40-year lease agreement.

As the Mattala International Air port is in a loss-making state, the present regime is paying back the interest annually amounting to Rs 1.7 billion for the past three years and even the profits from the Bandaranaike International Airport have to be added to the payment to be made to the Chinese for the next 15 years according to Deputy Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Ashok Abeysinghe.

The previous regime with the end of the three decades of war worked out its post-war economic plans in a way satisfying the regional superpowers India and China without any farsightedness.

As India and China have flexed their muscles for their regional supremacy, Sri Lanka is now in a state of being squeezed by both superpowers.