Announcement just before the Foreign Secretary Harsh ShringlaA visit to Sri Lanka, the agreement for the Western Container Terminal (WCT), even though it does not involve the Indian government, allows an Indian company to have a presence at the strategically important port where China is funding several megaprojects.
Shringla will try to reunite Sri Lanka at the political level during his 4-day visit, which will also see him visiting Jaffna, Trincomalee and Kandy. “The visit of the Foreign Secretary will provide an opportunity to review our bilateral relations, the progress of ongoing bilateral projects and the ongoing cooperation to deal with them. covid related disruptions,” the government said in a statement. Shringla is expected to meet both the Presidents Gotabaya Rajapaksa and PM Mahinda Rajapakse during the tour.
While international media have described the WCT agreement as India’s move to counter the growing Chinese influence, official sources here said that India still finds Sri Lanka’s unilateral decision to pull out of the international agreement for the ECT very unfortunate. sees as.
While the decision was attributed to opposition from trade unions, who explicitly did not want the involvement of any foreign power in the project, it did not help that Lanka’s vote-face came at a time when it was forced out of its own right. was seen as leaving. Way to facilitate Chinese investment even amid the pandemic. While India is not against China’s economic activities, it wants Sri Lanka to deal in a similar way with projects funded by India in sectors such as ports and energy. The Trincomalee oil farm project is seen as an example of the lack of progress that is a matter of concern for India.
India also wants Sri Lanka to be mindful of India’s security interests while dealing with China. A 1987 bilateral agreement also required that no Lanka port be made available for military use by any country in a manner ‘prejudicial to India’s interests’.
Sri Lanka will allow the Adani group and a local group 85 per cent stake in WCT while India and Japan had only 49 per cent stake in the ECT proposal. A government source said the agreement announced this week for WCT was a “useful development” as it was important for India to be present at the Colombo port and it was okay even if it was as an Indian company.
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