{"id":81887,"date":"2018-10-11T12:40:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T19:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=81887"},"modified":"2018-10-11T12:41:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T19:41:27","slug":"sri-lanka-says-no-chinese-military-base-at-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/10\/11\/sri-lanka-says-no-chinese-military-base-at-port\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka says no Chinese military base at port"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Courtesy Mailonline<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Sri Lanka last year granted Beijing a 99-year lease on the Hambantota deep-sea port, situated along key shipping routes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sri Lanka rejected on Wednesday US claims that China might establish a “forward military base” at a strategic port leased to Beijing by the indebted Indian Ocean island nation.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka last year granted a 99-year lease on the Hambantota deep-sea port to Beijing, after it was unable to repay Chinese loans for the $1.4-billion project.<\/p>\n

The port, situated along key shipping routes, is one of a string of infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and Europe being funded under China’s Belt and Road Initiative that has rattled the US and its allies, including neighbouring India.<\/p>\n

Last week US Vice-President Mike Pence said Hambantota “may soon become a forward military base for China’s growing blue-water navy,” according to US media.<\/p>\n

\"Sri<\/p>\n

But Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said that there would be no foreign military presence at Hambantota, and that the US State Department had been briefed.<\/p>\n

“Our navy’s Southern Command is being relocated in Hambantota to control port security,” Wickremesinghe’s office quoted him as saying in Britain on Monday.<\/p>\n

Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka was also concluding a commercial agreement that would see India take over the management of Hambantota airport — another white-elephant project built with Chinese loans under former president Mahinda Rajapakse.<\/p>\n

Regional superpower India has been concerned about growing Chinese interest in Sri Lanka, which has traditionally fallen within New Delhi’s sphere of influence.<\/p>\n

In August, the US announced it would grant Sri Lanka $39 million to boost maritime security.<\/p>\n

At the same time, China has pledged to increase its funding of Sri Lanka’s economy, including through loans, despite the country’s major debt pile.<\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund, which bailed out Sri Lanka in June 2016 with a $1.5 billion staggered loan, has warned Colombo over its heavy liabilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Courtesy Mailonline Sri Lanka last year granted Beijing a 99-year lease on the Hambantota deep-sea port, situated along key shipping routes Sri Lanka rejected on Wednesday US claims that China might establish a “forward military base” at a strategic port leased to Beijing by the indebted Indian Ocean island nation. Sri Lanka last year granted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}