Sri Lanka’s president visits to India on Thursday for his first trip to the regional powerhouse, considering the raising problems in New Delhi over China’s raising influence in the deliberately placed but financially bankrupt island. New Sri Lankan rulers usually travel to India within a few weeks of taking office. But Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe’s trip happens exactly a year after he was given the opportunity to serve as a president following the toppling of his predecessor at the height of an unprecedented economic destruction.
As Sri Lanka drew closer to mess with daily street protests because of shortage of food, fuel and medicines, India provided around US$4 billion (S$5 billion) in aid to bring supplies and bring stability to the island. The loans and credit lines were given despite Sri Lanka defaulting on its US$46 billion foreign debt and not being able to have access to international financial markets. China is Sri Lanka’s hugest bilateral creditor and a Chinese firm got a 99-year lease on the southern port of Hambantota after Colombo failed to repay a large loan from Beijing to create it. Sri Lanka lies halfway along the sole international shipping route between Europe and East Asia, with Colombo and Hambantota the main deep sea ports between Dubai and Singapore. New Delhi looks at the place as its backyard, and officials have been threatened by Beijing’s activities.