Riled by Sri Lankan envoy's assertion that Colombo will not permit China's military presence in its ports, Chinese official media today quoted a scholar who accused India of "interfering" in the island nation's internal affairs.
Riled by Sri Lankan envoy's assertion that Colombo will not permit China's military presence in its ports, Chinese official media today quoted a scholar who accused India of "interfering" in the island nation's internal affairs.
Sri Lankan envoy to China Karunasena Kodituwakku last week said that Colombo will not permit any military activity by China in any of its ports, including Hambantota in which Chinese firm will have 80 per cent stake.
"Sri Lanka's promise is unnecessary because the port is meant for civilian use, and shows that India is interfering in Sri Lanka's affairs," Chu said.
"China has no intention to offend India, and the program is good for Sri Lanka's economic development. But if India has a problem with the program and oppresses its neighbour, it only shows that it is interfering in other countries' domestic affairs," Chu Yin, an associate professor at the University of International Relations, told state-run Global Times daily.
Lin Minwang, a professor at the Institute of International Studies of Fudan University said "Sri Lanka initially wanted India to help develop Hambantota port, but it finally turned to China for help since India faces financial difficulties and concerns over future competition with its own ports in the Indian Ocean."
Separately an article in the same daily said "China won't back down from building economic, commercial ties with Sri Lanka" maintaining that Beijing will not be left behind India in "boosting its presence".
"It would not necessarily be a bad thing if healthy competition between China and India in the Sri Lankan market could be further stirred up," the article said.
"While China and Sri Lanka ramp up efforts to finalise a free trade agreement (FTA) this year, India is pushing for the signing of the Economic Technology Cooperation Agreement with Sri Lanka to broaden the scope of its existing FTA. It seems that neither China or India wants to be left behind in boosting its presence in the island nation," it said. Last September an article by Forbes magazine has said foreign loans and investments in Sri Lanka including that of from China are driving the country to bankrupt. The official estimate of what Sri Lanka currently owes its financiers is USD 64.9 billion of which UDD eight billion owned by China. Sri Lanka's debt-to-GDP currently stands around 75 per cent and 95.4 per cent of all government revenue is currently going towards debt repayment.
"Sri Lanka may be in a debt trap that it can't get out of.
This year (2016) alone USD 4.5 billion is due to foreign lenders and next year (2017) USD four billion is owed bills which the country has not yet figured out a way to pay," it said.
"Much of Sri Lanka's pile of debt accrued in the process of initiating an entire buffet of large-scale and extremely expensive infrastructure projects under the direction of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa," it said. MORE
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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