India-Sri Lanka under G Rajapaksa regime, signals no neighbourhood policy shift.

In today’s contested geopolitical political climate, Will Sri Lanka move closer to China under the new government of G Rajapaksa??

It could not change the nature of India’s relationship with its neighbours. This signals no shift in neighbourhood policy and no change in our position.

Sri Lanka president visited India to further strengthen the relations between the two countries. The leaders affirmed the common desire of building greater convergences on bilateral, regional & global matters of mutual interest. They discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation, inter alia in trade & investment, renewable energy, environment and climate change. It is that this visit assumes significance owing to the growing illegal influence of China in the island nation in the last few years. India is ready to undertake more projects of mutual interest, as per Sri Lanka’s requirements and priorities.

Indian Ocean is an important place and plays an important role in the present day geopolitics. So, these lanes should be free and no country including china should control these sea lanes. China is encroaching on its sphere of influence in the region and eroding its commercial and cultural links with the island nation. Sri Lanka is reminded the dangers of falling into China’s debt trap. Colombo already had to lease away the Hambantota port to Beijing. It should be wary of more Chinese white elephant projects, which end up taking its sovereignty away. India wants that the new dispensation in Colombo should safeguard its strategic interests including disallowing any Chinese military assets in the island nation and submarines in its territorial waters. 

The US, UK and France too have an interest in Indian Ocean and have powerful military bases in the region. These common interests are the basis of the new Indo-Pacific strategy that the US is pushing for to challenge China's illegal influence. Indo-Pacific that is free, open and inclusive, and one that is founded upon a cooperative and collaborative rules-based order. Indo-pacific clearly indicates the geographical swath of India’s conceptualisation of the Indo-Pacific to stretch from Africa to Americas, thereby covering the entire Indian and Pacific oceans, in tandem with that of Japan.Trump signed legislation recently in order to enhance America’s active engagements in the Indo-Pacific. Therefore, countries are collectively or individually making effort to shape the Indo-Pacific portfolios. Quad Alliance and India-ASEAN underlined the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, stability, maritime safety and security, freedom of navigation and overflight in the region, and other lawful uses of the seas and unimpeded lawful maritime commerce and to promote peaceful resolutions of disputes, in accordance with universally recognised principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Chinese entities were also credibly accused of fuelling corruption, illegally funnelling money to favoured political candidates, and inserting sovereignty-violating provisions into their infrastructure agreements.

India as an astute global strategist, and while acknowledging India’s inherent geographical advantages regarding Sri Lanka, the India's deft diplomacy provides important lessons in terms of consequences. India is too close and too consequential to challenge China's aggressive influence internationally. India's military strategy would prove consequential for china as it contemplates an appropriate strategy to deal with chinese economic and military ingress in its backyard. A great power competition is India's top priority. Sri-Lanka government’s foreign policy would be “neutral” and stay out of “regional power struggles”. India has worked on building strategic ties on both sides of the political aisles. India can match Beijing’s economic wherewithal to make a difference to Colombo's developmental requirements and it can carve out an influential role with foreign policy principle of equidistance and geostrategic neutrality. We India is committed to ensuring a “free and open” region, with “respect for international law”, and “the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific”, a reference to what we see as China’s flouting of territorial, maritime and trade rules – including Beijing’s rejection of an international tribunal’s ruling against it regarding its South China Sea dispute with the Philippines.

India's position is very firm and consistent and never be changed, India, therefore, has an abiding interest in the peace and stability in the region. India firmly stands for the freedom of navigation and over-flight, and unimpeded lawful commerce, in the international waters, in accordance with international laws, notably UNCLOS. India also believes that any differences must be resolved peacefully by respecting the legal and diplomatic processes, and without resorting to threat or use of force. India-ASEAN, India-Quadrilateral alliance have affirmed to deepening international military Cooperation to align their security policies in strategically important Indo-pacific region based on principles of international law and United convention of the laws of the sea to counter Beijing's influence in the region.