Modi raises concerns in talks with Ranil
Posted on April 27th, 2017
By Paneetha Ameresekere reporting from New Delhi Courtesy Ceylon Today
China ranked high in Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s meeting with Indian Premier Narendra Modi, at Hyderabad House, New Delhi yesterday, official sources who didn’t want to be named told this reporter.
Reporters were not allowed to cover these meetings, with opportunities provided only for the taking of photographs and to be present when pleasantries were exchanged between Wickremesinghe and Indian officials, including Modi, before the beginning of talks, during the former’s various engagements in Delhi.
Wickremesinghe’s official engagements concluded yesterday.
The Hambantota Port project, in particular, which Colombo is planning to lease to Beijing in exchange for debt, figured high in these talks, the sources said. However, the Colombo Port City project, now dubbed Colombo International Financial City, being currently developed by the Chinese in a US$ 1.4 billion project, didn’t figure by name in these talks, they said.
Wickremesinghe had assured Modi and other Indian officials that the Hambantota Port will be used only for commercial purposes, and, from a military perspective, only Sri Lanka will have the prerogative to use it for defence purposes, and, no other country.
However, it isn’t clear whether there is a written agreement with the Chinese that they won’t use Hambantota for military purposes.
Earlier, Wickremesinghe met Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and former Indian Premier Manmohan Singh, where the Indian fisher poaching and the Chinese issues were discussed. With regard to the latter, Wickremesinghe assured that the Chinese interests would be restricted only to commercial issues and not military, they said.
April 28th, 2017 at 6:10 pm
INDIA has already signed 10 Border Peace Agreements with China.
For Sri Lanka, ALL the Ports ought be for PEACEFUL PURPOSES ONLY, and this ought to be in the Constitution as an Amendment ?
April 28th, 2017 at 6:45 pm
India should FORGET ABOUT “INVESTING” in Sri Lanka, and focus on building latrines for Indian citizens who are defecating in public.
The last time they INVESTED in Sri Lanka, they financed Tamil terrorism, spawning a 30-year conflict that consumed the lives of 150,000 Sri Lankan citizens! That is ENOUGH Indian INVESTMENT in Sri Lanka for the next 1,000 years …. no thank you very much!
India is the SINGLE GREATEST THEAT to Sri Lanka. The LESS INTERACTION Sri Lanka has with India and Indians the better off Sri Lanka will be.
This BASIC FACT will never change due to our proximity to India and the presence of a separatist minority of Tamils in Sri Lanka claiming greater affiliation to the 80 million Indian Tamils in Tamil Nadu, rather than to the 17 million non-Tamil fellow citizens of Sri Lanka.
We will allow India to INTERFERE in and DOMINATE our economy to our peril. ENOUGH ALREADY!
Just tell India that we will be a good neighbor and will not threaten their security if they do not threaten ours, but otherwise to BUTT OUT OF Sri Lanka’s internal matters. PERIOD!