BEIJING – Sri Lanka rejected on Wednesday US claims that China mightestablish a “forward military base” at a strategic port leased to Beijingby the indebted Indian Ocean island nation.
Sri Lanka last year granted a 99-year lease on the Hambantota deep-sea portto Beijing, after it was unable to repay Chinese loans for the $1.4-billionproject.
The port, situated along key shipping routes, is one of a string ofinfrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and Europe being funded underChina’s Belt and Road Initiative that has rattled the US and its allies,including neighbouring India.
Last week US Vice-President Mike Pence said Hambantota “may soon become aforward military base for China’s growing blue-water navy,” according to USmedia.
But Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said that therewould be no foreign military presence at Hambantota, and that the US StateDepartment had been briefed.
“Our navy’s Southern Command is being relocated in Hambantota to controlport security,” Wickremesinghe’s office quoted him as saying in Britain onMonday.
Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka was also concluding a commercial agreementthat would see India take over the management of Hambantota airport –another white-elephant project built with Chinese loans under formerpresident Mahinda Rajapakse.
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Regional superpower India has been concerned about growing Chinese interestin Sri Lanka, which has traditionally fallen within New Delhi’s sphere ofinfluence.
In August, the US announced it would grant Sri Lanka $39 million to boostmaritime security.
At the same time, China has pledged to increase its funding of Sri Lanka’seconomy, including through loans, despite the country’s major debt pile.
The International Monetary Fund, which bailed out Sri Lanka in June 2016with a $1.5 billion staggered loan, has warned Colombo over its heavyliabilities. – APP/AFP
