{"id":155242,"date":"2026-03-19T16:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155242"},"modified":"2026-03-19T16:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:45:20","slug":"us-india-prepare-to-grab-hambantota-port-claiming-its-a-chinese-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/03\/19\/us-india-prepare-to-grab-hambantota-port-claiming-its-a-chinese-base\/","title":{"rendered":"US & India Prepare to Grab Hambantota Port Claiming It\u2019s a Chinese\u00a0Base"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Posted byee ink.<\/a>Uncategorized<\/a>Tags:China<\/a>, geopolitics<\/a>, history<\/a>, India<\/a>, Jaishankar<\/a>, pence<\/a>, politics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 08-14 March 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018<\/strong>Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar recognized Hambantota<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

harbour as a Chinese military facility that underlined an<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

intimidating foreign military presence in the Indian Ocean<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Focus<\/strong><\/em>, Jaishankar)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian Foreign Minister<\/strong>\u2019s response last week to a planted question by WION<\/em>\u2018s Palki Sharma<\/strong> at Delhi\u2019s Raisina Dialogue 2026<\/strong>, diverted to talking about a non-existent Chinese miltary base in Hambantota, to avoid answering more searing questions regarding India (and Sri Lanka\u2019s) knowledge of the USA preparing to attack an Iranian ship in the sea nearby. So-called social media foggery then took over creating further useless fuss over the Sri Lanka Foreign Minister<\/strong>\u2019s presumed inability to answer questions in clear English, diverting more from the Indian Foreign Minister\u2019s outre assertions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/strong>   The Indian government had been the first to be asked to invest in Hambantota harbor & airport, but had refused to help develop the southeast region, because they were prioritizing the arming and promotion of terrorism <\/strong>in Sri Lanka\u2019s north and east at the time, especially to grab Trincomalee port. Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign officials at (and after) the Raisina Dialogue 2026, did not challenge the Indian assertion about a foreign base. Instead media in Sri Lanka focused on the Lanka Foreign Minister\u2019s English. The use of English, rather than speaking in our own language and using translators (as most independent countries do at international fora), is less an issue of linguistic prowess than appearing to be an attempt at furthering \u2018strategic ambiguity<\/strong>\u2019 in dealing with current challenges, more contentious than most foreign officials, Oxford-house-trained or not, have ever had to deal with.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The US submarine attack led to the mass killing and drowning of cadets (invited as guests to participate in an Indian-led \u2018friendly\u2019 international exercise in what India likes to call its backyard<\/em>). The resulting ecological damage<\/strong>, has not even drawn the criticism of the numerous (US & EU-funded) environmental NGOs \u2013 the silence of these ecological lambs, who normally bleat loudly at the slightest slick of oil, is deafening; they who cry about coral reefs, birds & beasts (which get more publicity than our cultivators \u2013 see ee Agriculture<\/strong><\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/strong> The renewed US-led colonization project has seen the USA blow up pipelines (Nordstream, etc.) and attempt to grab or hold on to \u2018chokepoints\u2019 (Sri Lanka, Diego Garcia, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Malacca, South China Sea, Arctic Sea, Greenland, Panama, Venezuela\/Trinidad, etc.) so as to prevent the wider industrialization of our world, let alone the modernization of China, Russia, Africa, and Sri Lanka. Their final dream (or nightmare) may be to grab the labor power and unified market of the now People\u2019s Republic of China, and seek to return China to its pre-Liberation sick-man status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first illustrious personage to make the claim that Hambantota port was becoming a forward military base<\/strong> for the Chinese Navy was by US President Donald Trump\u2019s first Vice President Mike Pence<\/strong> in 2018. This claim too came as a diversion, for it was made soon after media revealed that Sri Lanka had granted logistic hub status<\/strong> to the USA. To take \u2018advantage of a growing naval partnership with Sri Lanka\u2019, the US Navy had first operated the air logistic hub in late August 2018, when the USS Anchorage <\/strong>(LPD 23) <\/em>visited Trincomalee<\/strong> to support the US Essex Amphibious Ready Group<\/em><\/strong> as it transited the western boundary of the 7th Fleet<\/strong> area of operations (See ee<\/strong><\/em> December 2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis (CVN 74<\/em>) established the hub in Sri Lanka to receive support, supplies & services at sea. A C-2 Greyhound carrier onboard delivery aircraft accessed the hub\u2019s strategic location before bringing supplies to the Stennis<\/em>. \u2018The primary purpose of the operation was to provide mission-critical supplies & services to USA Navy ships transiting through and operating in the Indian Ocean\u2026 The secondary purpose [was] to demonstrate the US Navy\u2019s ability to establish a temporary logistics hub ashore where no enduring US Navy logistics footprint<\/strong> exists.\u2019 The hub concept enabled the use of an airstrip<\/strong> and storage facilities<\/strong> to receive weapons and other materiel, and \u2018move out in various directions in smaller shipments, allowing ships to continue operating at sea by receiving the right material at the right place & time\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The revelation about the USA\u2019s \u2018hub\u2019 led to great political turmoil: then-President Maithripala Sirisena clashed with then-Premier Wickremasinghe\u2019s attempt to privately partner with US ally, India, to run the East Container Terminal (ECT<\/strong>) of the Colombo harbour. The battle over ownership of the ECT led to the sacking of Wickremesinghe. It was unclear if the UNP had consulted President Sirisena about the setting up of the US logistic hub in Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapaksa, on Dec 16, 2018, warned of the possible implications to Sri Lanka by giving US access to Trincomalee and getting entangled in superpower rivalry. This was soon after <\/strong>Rajapaksa gave up the premiership to enable Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, as ordered by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In March 2007, Sri Lanka had entered into Acquisition & Cross-Servicing Agreement <\/strong>(ACSA<\/strong>) with the USA. The then-Defence-Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and then-USA-Ambassador Robert Blake secretly signed the ACSA in Colombo. Left parties at the time condemned the ACSA, both in & outside parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The agreement, valid for 10 years, was meant to facilitate transfer and exchange of logistics supplies, support and re-fueling services. The ACSA was again officially extended in 2017, but this time, 10 times larger than the 2007 agreement, again secretly. The announcement of the US setting up of a logistic hub in Sri Lanka was meant to hint that this US agenda was proceeding. ACSA is to be re-signed in 2027<\/strong>, and the USA aims to use acquiescence to their war plans, as a precondition for the IMF bailing out the government again<\/em><\/strong>, in 2028. In the meantime, the IMF WB keep acting coy, with the Central Bank governor in tow, tail wagging, makes rosy forecasts, while demanding privatization of national resources, knowing their bosses in Washington could wage war anytime, to upend any such forecasts, destroying any such \u2018restructuring\u2019, and insisting we have to repay unpayable debts to Wall Street\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The refusal of the 2015-2019 Sirisena government to sign the accompanying SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement)<\/strong>, which would allow US boots on Sri Lankan soil, nor to finalize the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) <\/strong>to enable deeper economic penetration, led to his removal and repeated demonization as a rural rube in the English media.
     The Indo-Lanka Defence Forum<\/strong> 2018 edition (Vol 43: 2) dealt with Sri Lanka\u2019s transformation into a global maritime hub, while protesting Chinese ships entering Sri Lanka\u2019s ports \u2013 in particular, a submarine Colombo port call in 2014. The ILDF edition described the growing alliance between India & USA, listing major forces\u2019 locations, military exercises & engagements coming under the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) \u2013 the USA\u2019s oldest & largest military command. In 2018, the Trump administration renamed the Pacific Command as Indo-Pacific Command to supposedly signal India\u2019s importance to the US military due to US intrusions into the South China Sea.
     The ILDF edition listed India & Sri Lanka as US allies along with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Guam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Thailand, Mongolia, Brunei, Timor-Leste, Tonga, & Mongolia. The one-time Indian High Commissioner in Colombo (1997-2000) and National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon<\/strong>\u2019s memoirs Choices: Inside the Making of India\u2019s Foreign Policy<\/em> (Oct 2016) indicated that New Delhi (& the USA) wanted the Rajapakses out of power due to their friendly SL-China relations. Menon quipped that Sri Lanka is an \u2018aircraft carrier, parked 14 miles off the Indian coast\u2019.
     Ajit Doval<\/strong>, who succeeded Menon as NSA, demanded Gotabhaya Rajapaksa do away with major Chinese-funded operations including the Colombo Port City project. Sri Lanka is yet to inquire into the covert US funding to oust the Rajapakses, despite US Secretary of State John Kerry\u2019s revelation that US$585mn was spent on projects in Nigeria, Myanmar & Sri Lanka to \u2018restore democracy\u2019.\u2019 The April 2019 terrorist attacks, which India claimed to have been aware of in advance, were meant to be a warning\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*
\u2018If the Sinopec refinery was built & operated by now,
during this crisis, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives
& Thailand will be buying petroleum products from
Sri Lanka rather than India. Call me a puppet, but my
opinions are always in national interest of Sri Lanka.\u2019
\u2013 Yasiru Ranaraja, Director, Belt&Road Initiative (BRISL, 13 March 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first roadblock to the Hambantota Port project was placed by England\u2019s P&O<\/strong>, for if Hambantota was developed as a major hub port it would pose a threat to Indian ports, like Mumbai\u2019s Nhava Shiva<\/strong> developed by P&O and now competing with Colombo. England\u2019s colonial Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co<\/strong>, has long controlled shipping in this country (now through their so-called \u2018local\u2019 conglomerates, Keells<\/strong> etc), and the role of sludge funders like US BlackRock<\/strong> (which has replaced Goldman Sachs<\/strong> in the anarcho-capitalist pandemonium). A New York Times<\/em> article by Dharisha Bastians, with background research by Aneesha Guruge of the US NED-funded Verite Institute, provided an extremely biased account of Hambantota port, adding to the US government\u2019s nightmare fantasy about China\u2019s supposed maritime \u2018String of Pearls<\/em>\u2019. Ironically, Hambantota was also claimed as a rival to the Vizhinjam Port<\/strong>, site of the recent nearby international naval exercises in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala<\/strong>, after which the US submarine torpedoed Iran\u2019s IRIS Dena<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Hambantota lies close to one of the biggest trade routes in the world, the east-west main trade flow in the Indian Ocean.<\/strong> Hambantota historically as well as potentially, was & could be, an industrial hub, rebirthing the colonially devastated and underdeveloped southeast hinterland surrounding it. China Merchant Holdings holds a 70% stake in Hambantota port for 99 years, with the remaining shares in the hands of Sri Lanka. It should be noted: \u2018Port terminals in New York & Long Beach are managed by Chinese companies<\/strong>. But people do not term Darwin & Long Beach as China\u2019s colonies!<\/em>\u2019 The agreement between China & Sri Lanka on Hambantota port contains a clause that \u2018strictly prohibits\u2019 the Chinese from using the port for military purposes. Between 2009 & May 2018, 422 warships belonging to 27 navies across the world arrived in Lanka\u2019s ports for operational, training & formal visits. India topped the regional list <\/em><\/strong>with 83 visits, while Japanese<\/strong> naval ships undertook 69 visits. Ranking way below them, China made 33 visits, Bangladesh had 29 visits, Russia 27, and Pakistan, 24 visits \u2013 (As for US & European visits? Not so closely tabulated, perhaps\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Ironically, the first practical Hambantota proposal came in a 2002 <\/strong>GoSL report, Regaining Sri Lanka: Vision & Strategy for Accelerated Development<\/em>, with former PM Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s pro-USA UNP<\/strong> in government, but failed to make headway. 23 years later, as the port advances, the Daily Mirror <\/em>last year noted: \u2018If a Chinese oil company<\/strong> comes here, they have higher technologies<\/strong>\u2026 Sinopec\u2019s refinery <\/strong>in Sri Lanka places it in direct competition with India\u2019s interests in expanding its role as an energy supplier\u2026 Sinopec, the leading Chinese petroleum company that has sought to invest in Sri Lanka, is facing obstacles in pressing ahead<\/strong> with implementation\u2019 \u2013 of the Sinopec refinery in progress in Hambantota\u2026 It was meant to be part of a proposed major high-tech industrial zone for Sri Lanka\u2019 \u2013 a future potential now under US and Indian threat, the threat of a good example!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The long ongoing, blatant (yet mostly surreptitious) suppression of Sri Lanka\u2019s attempts at modern industrialization, let alone the sabotage of our endeavors to attain energy self-sufficiency, have long been the earnest hankering of this newsletter eCon-eNews<\/em>, which exists as a tribute to the work of SBD de Silva<\/strong>, as well as other industrial trailblazers such as Anagarika Dharmapala<\/strong> & DJ Wimalasurendra<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     As we approach our New Year (2570!), midst the US-led devastation of West Asia<\/strong> (& in the not-so-distant background, the open US strangulation of Cuba<\/strong>) Sri Lanka agonizes once again with the private & foreign control over supplies of energy, beseeching petroleum products from Russia & India (which has been \u2018allowed\u2019 by the USA to get oil again from Russia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is dead! \u2013 This week heard and saw the \u2018auspicious\u2019 headlines that 6 new \u2018private\u2019 companies have taken over \u2018operations of Sri Lanka\u2019s power utility\u2019 (see ee Random Notes<\/em>)<\/strong>, a demand by the US government\u2019s IMF<\/strong>, which no doubt will demand under the table, acquiescence to US corporate control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The recently publicity given to the ability and attempts by US invaders to paralyze power supplies & networks (Venezuela, Cuba, Iran\u2026), before military attack, makes us recall, how in 2023, with a \u2018final draft of the new Electricity Act <\/strong>to go before Cabinet in June\u2019, a government under the unelected President Ranil Wickremesinghe, announced:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018<\/strong>US conglomerate General Electric Co (GE) would set up a modern<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distribution Control Centre<\/strong> for the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018a Consortium led by GE T&D India Ltd & GE Digital Services Europe\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

was contracted to establish a SCADA-supported Distribution Control<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centre for Western Province South. 1) A SCADA (Supervisory Control<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

& Data Acquisition) System<\/strong> is the heart of an ADMS (Advanced Distribution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management System)<\/strong>. A distribution SCADA system\u2019s primary function is to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

support distribution operations through telemetry, alarming, event recording,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& remote control of field equipment\u2026 Richardson Projects, as the local partne<\/strong>r<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of G<\/strong>E, is pleased\u2026 Richardson represents \u2018a few of the world\u2019s renowned brands,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

including but not limited to Eaton \u2013 US Sediver \u2013 France, Polycab \u2013 India, Inael<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Spain, Elcon \u2013 Italy, Imefy \u2013 Spain, EPE \u2013 Malaysia, Hexing \u2013 China.\u2018<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Industry<\/strong><\/em>, General Electric)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electricity networks are highly complex and interconnected systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decisions affecting generation, transmission and distribution cannot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

be treated purely as administrative or commercial matters.\u201d \u2013 ee Industry<\/em>,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restructuring the electricity sector must not<\/p>\n\n\n\n

compromise grid stability, warns senior engineer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just over 100 years ago, DJ Wimalasurendra<\/strong> had proposed a plan to generate our own energy security<\/strong> through ample hydropower (See ee<\/em><\/strong>, 01 Aug 2020, 05 Sep 2020, 19 Jul 2025). His plans were sabotaged by the English colonial government<\/strong> on behalf of what Wimalasurendra himself called the \u2018big business<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 of Shell & British Petroleum (BP), Boustead Bros & Whitehall Petroleum (now Pearson PLC, with a monopoly over textbooks & examinations etc). We should here recall that British Petroleum\u2019s original name was the Anglo-Persian Oil<\/em><\/strong> Co<\/strong> (who along with the USA Rockefeller Exxon Co.<\/strong> have financed the coups and wars against Iran).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018In a series of speeches made at the State Council,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

especially during 1933-4, Wimalasurendra identified the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

broad alliance that worked against the Hydroelectric Scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He used different names at times to identify this alliance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Big Business\u2019, \u2018Oil & Coal Combine\u2019, \u2018Almighty Oil Interests\u2019,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Big Business & Alien Combines\u2019, \u2018Imperialistic Element\u2019,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Big Business Element\u2019, \u2018Big Business Party\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 BD Witharana, Negotiating Power & Constructing<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Nation: Engineering in Sri Lanka<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018During the advent of the 1st<\/sup> industrial revolution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka was mostly under the rule of European Colonisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1815, Sri Lanka was fully conquered by the English Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, at that time, the English industrial policy <\/strong>was<\/strong> to prohibit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

any form of industrialisation <\/strong>in any of their colonies, & to use them<\/p>\n\n\n\n

only as sources of raw material to fuel up industrialisation in England<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In colonies they built canals & railroads and used steam engines only<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to transport raw materials from inner parts of colonies to the seaports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They set up government institutions that facilitated the extraction of resources<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& did not set up complete sets of institutions that were necessary for<\/p>\n\n\n\n

industrialisation & promoting economic growth & development within<\/p>\n\n\n\n

colonies. Thus, Sri Lanka missed the 1st<\/sup> industrial revolution.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013       see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, HN Thenuwara: SL Should Regain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missed Industrial Revolutions (cited by WA Wijewardena)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The ancient Sinhala familiarity with money, as described by SBD de Silva, deviates from the idyllic picture of a primitive rustic society untainted by the base metal\u201d. This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> continues Chapter 8 of de Silva\u2019s classic, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em>. Highland Sinhal\u00e9, though under siege for centuries by European invasions, were supported by people outside their territory, especially Sabaragamuwa and Matara. de Silva notes the external trade of the kingdom of Sinhal\u00e9 was based partly on cash, and notes the money hoards uncovered midst the English conquest. The Sabaragamuwa district, a part of highland Sinhal\u00e9 and governed by Sinhala law, yet had \u2018adopted many of the habits & customs\u2019 of the maritime provinces, riddled as it was with \u2018numerous Moor and Chetty traders\u2019. Cinnamon was an important source of foreign currency, and Sinhala were employed to carry cinnamon. Arecanuts, pepper, coffee, cardamoms & wax were secretly traded with Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     There were several species of coin<\/strong>, and traders were savvy about the purchasing power of the different currencies. The Sinhala declined to accept the official exchange rate. The spy John D\u2019Oyly<\/strong>, who kept abreast of economic dealings, as a sources of intrigue, observed that Sinhala traders were well aware that, \u2018the true value of any coin is the quantity of commodities it will purchase\u2019<\/strong>. Local produce was shipped abroad to the Maldives and to Europe, and wealth was amassed by the privileged strata. The wealth of the highland Sinhala upper class was mostly based on a \u2018rentier income\u2019, from a variety of landholdings, and tributary payments, usually in cash, made during the Sinhala New Year for the annual renewal of appointments & reappointments & disappointments. There were trading monopolies, and the exchange of expensive gifts. The Sinhala chiefs also made clandestine profits, misappropriating state funds & making improper exactions of money from subordinates, including from collaborators with the English, all carefully observed and used by the spy D\u2019Oyly to compromise highland Sinhala officials in his coup d\u2019etat of 1815\u2026   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
US & India Prepare to Grab Hambantota Port Claiming It\u2019s a Chinese Base<\/a><\/blockquote>