The Political Turmoil in Sri Lanka
Apr 11, 2022
The India-China Angle
Over the past decade or so, India and China have been competing for influence in Sri Lanka. For New Delhi, it is important to ensure that Beijing doesn’t get a strategic foothold in Sri Lanka which Indian policymakers consider will end up hampering the country’s interests in the Indian Ocean region. China, of course, thinks differently. China doesn’t consider the Indian Ocean as India’s ocean and has been wooing Colombo to give it more and more space in the island nation of 22 million people many of whom have ethnic and religious ties with India. While China has the money to influence Sri Lanka, India has deep historical linkages and proximity on its side.
Due to several recent controversies, China has been receiving a lot of bad press in Sri Lanka, something New Delhi has been cleverly using to its advantage.
During the current economic crisis, however, both India and China have been offering aid and assistance to Colombo. There has been a great deal of diplomatic activity between Colombo and New Delhi in the recent past, especially since the onset of the crisis. New Delhi has been helping Colombo through loans, credit lines, jet fuel, and emergency medicines, among others.
For Colombo and the Sri Lankans, this is a major economic crisis. Beijing is rethinking its strategy in Sri Lanka for its mercantilist policy in the island nation and is perhaps not giving the strategic and economic dividends it expected from there. For New Delhi, this is an opportunity to help a needy neighbour thereby repairing its damaged relations with the country. In a sense, Sri Lanka is a test case for Indian playmakers: If it plays its cards well, it will be able to strengthen its relations with Sri Lanka and could potentially offset some of the strategic challenges posed by china there.
Sri Lanka may be a small state, but it is geographically too close to India for New Delhi to ignore it. An entrenched Chinese presence there, which was rising before the current crisis hit the country, will undoubtedly hurt our national security interests in the region. There is another important reason why India should redouble its efforts to help Colombo: Every small state in South Asia is watching the crisis in Sri Lanka to see how the two major players in the region – India and China – are responding to it. India must set the correct example.
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Happymon Jacob
Happymon Jacob is Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the honorary director of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research. New Delhi. He is the author of Line on Fire: Ceasefire Violations and India-Pakistan Escalation Dynamics (Oxford University Press, 2019), and Line of Control: Traveling with the Indian and Pakistani Armies (Penguin Viking 2018)