Sri Lanka Perspectives December 2021| South Asia Security Trends January 2022| www.security-risk.com
The
mood in Sri Lanka at the end of the year 2021 is not unlike the aftermath of
the Boxing Day tsunami that struck the island nation 17 years ago, on December
26. The tsunami attributed to the 9.1 Richter earthquake in the Indian Ocean
took a toll of over 35,000 lives including 4000+ missing persons and a million and
half people were displaced from their homes.
International
community swiftly rallied to provide relief to Sri Lanka. Though India’s own
coastal areas had also faced the wrath of the tsunami, causing the death of
over 10,000 lives, it was the first country to provide relief to Sri Lanka.
According to Washington Post, “an Indian navy medical team arrived in
Colombo within hours of the tsunami, and four ships docked at several ports
across the country by the end of the following day…. a team of Indian divers,
meanwhile arrived in Galle to begin raising sunken vessels that were preventing
relief ships from entering the port; with help from the Sri Lankan Navy, the
job was completed in eight days.” The report also said, “Over the last three
weeks, India has deployed 14 ships, nearly 1000 military personnel and several
dozen helicopters and airplanes to its devastated island neighbour…..Indian
officials described the relief mission as the largest outside their borders
since independence from Britain in 1947.”
At
the end of 2021, Sri Lanka is facing devastating effects of another kind, which
are no less than the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. The explosive mix of the
global COVID 19 pandemic has taken its toll, not only on Sri Lankan people, but
on the national economy. The government coffers are empty and its mounting
international debts threaten to prolong its agony during 2022.
However,
unlike the aftermath of 2004 tsunami, nations are not rushing to the aid of Sri
Lanka to speed up the process of its recovery. Sri Lanka seems to have lost
much of the international goodwill it enjoyed in 2004; when the international
community was prepared to underwrite the peace process with development aid. Of
course, the changed international attitude can be attributed to the changes in
the global and regional strategic scene. The entry of China, more powerful than
ever, in the Indo-Pacific has resulted in the realignment of big
power footprints in the region. Sri Lanka finds itself in the eye of this
dynamic scene after the formation of the Quadrilateral framework of four
nations - India, USA, Japan and Australia. China’s increasing domination of the
Indian Ocean region and its adverse impact on India-China relations is another
issue of concern for South Asia.
However,
Sri Lanka’s internal political scene, has not changed much now; probably it is
a little worse than in 2004. A bit of soul searching will probably show that
political parties have frittered away a decade plus of peace after the end of
the LTTE led Tamil separatist insurgency. It provided an opportunity to build a
vision driven muti-ethnic nation. In 2021, we saw the ascent of the Sinhala
Buddhist majoritarianism; it is now stridently calling the shots in governance.
The rise of Buddhist chauvinism and militarism in tandem could turn the year
2022 turbulent, if course correction is not made by President Rajapaksa. There
are rumblings of discontent at his style of governance within the ruling
SLPP-SLFP political coalition. This could get worse in the coming months, if
action is not taken to curb runaway food prices and shortages of fuel, power
and other essentials.
In
short, 2022 is going to be an eventful year for Sri Lanka. Much would depend
upon how the government manages its macroeconomic issues. In this respect, the
two-day visit of finance minister Basil Rajapaksa to New Delhi early in the
month is interesting. He had two rounds of talks with his Indian counterpart Ms
Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs minister S Jaishankar. He also met with
the minister for petroleum Hardeep Puri and NSA Ajit Doval. He sought India’s
extended lines of credit for a host of supplies – food, medicines, fuel etc -
and Indian investment, which had been lagging.
But apparently, during the talks India had expressed its economic
concerns over unresolved Indian investment issues like the Trinco Oil Tank
Farm, as well as, security concerns over increasing Chinese footprint in Sri
Lanka. Sri Lanka High Commissioner to India Milinda
Moragoda, saw the talks as part of Colombo’s dialogue process with New Delhi.
Speaking at an Indian virtual seminar, he said “Of course, given the nature of
the power play in this region, Chinese presence can be looked at differently.
In that context, I think our dialogue with India is what is important – to
build trust and to understand each other. And may be, have some red lines which
both sides will not cross.” He further added that India has not told us not to
accept Chinese investment. “But as long as the investment does not create any
strategic issue in India, we should be able to entertain that investment.”
Apparently,
the talks nudged the energy ministry to speedily conclude the negotiations with
India regarding the development of Trinco Oil Tank Farm. Energy minister Udaya
Gammanpilla announcing the successful conclusion of negotiations said a total
of 14 oil tanks at the Farm currently operated by the Lanka Indian Oil Company
(LIOC) would be leased out them for another 50 years. He said 61 other tanks
will be managed by the newly established Trinco Petroleum Terminals, a joint
venture of the State-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the LIOC.
There is widespread expectation in Sri Lanka now that India would release a
$500 million line of credit for import of petroleum products. We can probably
expect other help from India during the month, as Sri Lanka bridges the
existing credibility gap with India. Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is
scheduled to visit the Gujarat investment summit in the first week of January.
Some Indian investment announcements can be expected to be timed with his
visit.
The
Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has announced that the country’s official
reserves as on December 21 has increased to $3.1 billion and “more inflows”
were expected to be realised by January 2022. It expected it to remain at this
level till the end of the year. The statement did not reveal the source of
inflows. However, media reports quoting forex market sources said reserves had
plunged to less than $1.5 billion by mid-December and the latest position given
by the Bank was following the drawdown of Yuan 10 billion ($1.5 billion) swap
arrangement with the Peoples Bank of China. However, CBSL has said its figure
does not include the swap, though opposition MP and economist Dr Harsha de
Silva has questioned CBSL reasoning and asked for details.
Amidst
Sri Lanka efforts to energise its relations with India, it is interesting to
note China taking baby steps to improve its image in Northern Province, where
the Tamils generally consider China as pandering to the Sinhala majority. These
measures come in the disastrous aftermath of Sri Lanka’s rejection of organic
fertiliser of Chinese origin for substandard quality. Chinese ambassador to
Colombo Qi Zhenhong made a three-day visit to Northern Province in
mid-December. The photo ops of the ambassador's bare-bodied darshan at the
Nallur Temple got wide coverage. He visited the Jaffna Public Library, which
was rebuilt by India, after it was destroyed during ethnic conflict. Jaffna
Mayor Viswalingam Manivannan took him round the library. The envoy donated five
laptops and books in different languages to the library.
According
to the Chinese embassy statement, he also met with Governor Jeevan Thiagarajah
and discussed on how to enhance cooperation between China and Northern Province
and improve the livelihoods of the Tamil community. The Governor invited more
Chinese investment and assistance in aquaculture, fishing equipment, industries
and IT etc in the Northern Province, which received positive response by the
Chinese delegation. The Ambassador donated five sets of mobile water
purification plants, one for each of the districts. He also visited along with
fisheries minister Douglas Devananda the Chinese company running sea cucumber
hatchery in Ariyalai. He was “impressed to learn that the Chinese company has
created “thousands of jobs for local fishermen, brought millions of US $” and
transferred technology to Sri Lanka.
The Farm has also been an important studying and practising base
for government officials, local fishermen and students from University of
Jaffna etc. The company also raised a request to the Ministry of Fisheries and
other relevant Government authorities to expand the farming to attract more
FDI. He also took a team of Sri Lankan and Chinese media persons on a tour of
the Chinese owned New Silkroad Foodstuff factory in Mannar. The ambassador also
donated to local fishermen food parcels, fishing gears and masks
worth Rs 20 million.
We
can expect the Chinese to get into more and more active diplomacy mode in IOR
in 2022. The Chinese foreign ministry has announced that foreign
minister Wang Yi will be visiting the Maldives and Sri Lanka in early January.
It is significant he will be visiting Eritrea, Kenya and Comoros from January 4
to 7, before his visit to India's neighbours.
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