Sri Lanka’s new government wants China to hand back a port it was given two years ago to cover its debts – but its chances of success appear dim.
The port, located at the heart of a busy shipping route in southern Sri Lanka, has been held up by critics as a symbol of the worst aspects of China’s “debt trap diplomacy” with many locals regarding it as a sign of subordination to Beijing.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was elected last month after a campaign where he promised to undo the port deal.
“The perfect circumstance is a return to the norm,” Ajith Nivard Cabraal, a former governor of the central bank under Mahinda Rajapaksa – now serving as his brother’s prime minister.
“We pay back the loan in due course in the way that we had originally agreed without any disturbance at all.”
But so far Beijing has given no indication that it will rethink its plans – instead suggesting that development plans for the port should be speeded up.
On December 2 Chinese diplomat Wu Jianghao met Gotabaya Rajapaksa to congratulate him on his election victory – but an account of the meeting by state news agency Xinhua indicated that the two countries should “speed up the implementation of cooperation on big economic projects, including the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port, under the existing consensus”.
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