China recently deployed a survey vessel to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port — which Colombo ceded to Beijing on a 99-year lease in 2017 after defaulting on debt to China — Reuters reported on Thursday, noting that the vessel’s deployment to Sri Lanka has irked nearby India which denounced the Chinese research mission as a possible threat to New Delhi’s “security and economic interests.”
Sri Lanka recently revealed it ceded physical control of its Hambantota Port to China in 2017 not just on a 99-year lease, as previously reported, but also with a provision to extend the lease for an additional 99 years.
Sri Lanka’s new Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage conceded in an interview this week that the nation’s decision to hand over a major strategic port to China for 99 years was a “mistake” and that, under recently inaugurated President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the country will pivot to an “India First” approach.
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Contents: Sri Lanka formally hands its southern seaport Hambantota over to China; India’s alarm grows over spread of China’s ‘Maritime Silk Road’
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