Failure of BIMSTEC Further Seals Fate of Trincomalee’s Commercial Unviability
Posted on June 29th, 2026
Dilrook Kannangara
A recent article in the Sunday Observer titled – Can Sri Lanka afford to wait for Trincomalee Port development – prompted me to point out matters not fully discussed in the article from a Sri Lankan point of view. The article is written from an Indian point of view and has little or relevance to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, etc. as the economic interests of these nations widely differ.
BIMSTEC is the failed replacement for SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) that excludes Pakistan and Maldives that were part of SAARC. It’s an Indian attempt to exclude Pakistan, oppose China’s Belt and Road Initiative and forge its own initiative in the Bay of Bengal region. But with no nation outside India keen to do anything about it, the initiative failed. It remains only on paper as each one of the so-called BIMSETC countries” charts their own way.
Justifying Trincomalee port development based on BIMSTEC is therefore a complete flop. It is to build one failure on the back of an existing failure.
It is true that so-called BIMSTEC countries” have fast growing economies. But they are looking east, not west. They avoid India and link up with China and other nations east of them for mainly commercial reasons.
The timing of the article is also interesting. Bangladesh just agreed a land trade link with its largest trading partner, China. That completely annuls any usefulness of Trincomalee.
This takes the wind away from the sails of the argument that Trincomalee has potential to ride on the development of BIMSTEC countries. It also means Bangladesh will be less and less using the sea routes in the Bay of Bengal but instead relying on land trade corridors it has with China through Myanmar. Through Myanmar, Bangladesh will be trading with all South East Asian countries, not just Thailand. Needless to say, Myanmar has also land connections with China and South East Asian countries. Land trade routes are faster, cheaper, more reliable and fall within the complete control of these nations. Sea routes are subjected to war, violence, weather, delays, double handling costs, very high freight and insurance costs.
Both Bangladesh and Myanmar also trade with USA and the EU. Currently they use feeder vessels to send their export containers to Colombo which is on the world’s largest freight corridor. It works well for all participants including Sri Lanka. Trincomalee is not on this freight corridor and it makes no sense to dump their containers there to nowhere.
Nepal and Bhutan also have developed land trade routes to India and China – their largest trading partners.
Bangladesh and Myanmar’s second largest trading partner is India and they already have land-based trade routes to India with all the benefits of land routes over sea routes already achieved. This makes Trincomalee completely irrelevant for them!
India is also developing its sophisticated rail network to connect its west coast with its east coast. This is called the East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor (EWDFC) and it will be between Dankuni in West Bengal and Palghar in Maharashtra connecting Bay of Bengal Indian ports with its west coast ports. It takes India too out of the equation from any Trincomalee dud project.
Trincomalee has no commercial viability in modern heavy engineering, offshore petroleum or mining either.
However, Trincomalee continues to have military, tourism and fisheries utility. Its military usefulness to USA and the UK during WW2 is well-known. Sri Lanka has to be careful not to allow foreign players into the Trincomalee area to retain its neutrality, safeguard own defense interests and keep peace in the region. During the humanitarian campaign and prior, Trincomalee was the only logistics connection to the north. This must be maintained and strengthened.
Consulting residents in the region is also important. Many projects have failed due to lack of consultation of people living in the area. The Muslim majority district of Trincomalee has a delicate ethnic balance and a large array of connections to various nations, particularly with the Middle East and Pakistan. Inviting foreign participants with confrontational defense postures to these nations into the region can have catastrophic consequences to the stability and welfare of the population.
Sri Lankan government should avoid falling into dud projects and waste public funds in them. If Trincomalee has any commercial viability, it will not be ignored by local and foreign investors. They will invest wherever there is commercial viability. Government rushing in where private investors avoid is a case of fools dare where angels fear to tread. Sri Lanka already has piles of debt accumulated thanks to dud projects. No more. Recognize Trincomalee for what it truly is and not for what it is not under modern geopolitical, shipping and trading realities. Encourage private investors to take the lead in investing in it. Do not invest any public or borrowed funds by the government until then.