BEIJING:The economic and political chaos in Sri Lanka and the fall of the Rajapaksa brothers, who backed massive Chinese projects for over two decades in the nation will have a “big impact” on Beijing’s close ties with Colombo besides investments, experts have warned.
The Rajapaksa family was considered friendly to Beijing. When Mahinda, Gotabaya’s older brother, was in power from 2005 to 2015, he opened up Sri Lanka, which values for its strategic location in the Indian Ocean to Chinese projects, including the Hambantota port, which China obtained as part of a controversial debt-for-equity swap besides the unfinished Colombo port project being built on reclaimed land from the sea. Lin Minwang, a South Asia expert at Fudan University in Shanghai said the crisiswas also a “reminder” for Chinese investors looking to developing nations that are vulnerable to increasing fuel costs, food crunch and rising US interest rates.
But Liu Zongyi, a fellow at the Shanghai Institutes, said Beijing had maintained “friendly relationships not just with the Rajapaksas but every party in Sri Lanka.”Lin also said over the long term, Sri Lanka would be unlikely to move away from China, one of its biggest creditors and a key foreign investor. “Sri Lanka’s ties with India has its structural contradictions, and Sri Lanka needs a country like China as a counterbalance with India.”
The Rajapaksa family was considered friendly to Beijing. When Mahinda, Gotabaya’s older brother, was in power from 2005 to 2015, he opened up Sri Lanka, which values for its strategic location in the Indian Ocean to Chinese projects, including the Hambantota port, which China obtained as part of a controversial debt-for-equity swap besides the unfinished Colombo port project being built on reclaimed land from the sea. Lin Minwang, a South Asia expert at Fudan University in Shanghai said the crisiswas also a “reminder” for Chinese investors looking to developing nations that are vulnerable to increasing fuel costs, food crunch and rising US interest rates.
But Liu Zongyi, a fellow at the Shanghai Institutes, said Beijing had maintained “friendly relationships not just with the Rajapaksas but every party in Sri Lanka.”Lin also said over the long term, Sri Lanka would be unlikely to move away from China, one of its biggest creditors and a key foreign investor. “Sri Lanka’s ties with India has its structural contradictions, and Sri Lanka needs a country like China as a counterbalance with India.”
For all the latest world News Click Here
Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
