{"id":95790,"date":"2019-11-29T17:33:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T00:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95790"},"modified":"2019-11-29T17:33:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T00:33:39","slug":"india-seeks-to-outbid-china-with-aid-for-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/29\/india-seeks-to-outbid-china-with-aid-for-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"India seeks to outbid China with aid for Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy rthk<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newsstatic.rthk.hk\/images\/mfile_1495221_1_20191129213153.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/newsstatic.rthk.hk\/images\/mfile_1495221_1_20191129213153.jpg\"><\/a>Narendra Modi greets Sri Lanka&#8217;s new leader, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Photo: AP<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>India, anxious to counter China&#8217;s influence in the region, on Friday offered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Sri Lanka as the island&#8217;s new president made his maiden overseas trip in New Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gotabaya Rajapaksa&#8217;s visit to India just 12 days after he became president is being intensely watched as New Delhi and Beijing compete to control the Indian Ocean and its strategic sea routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka has traditionally been allied to India but China invested and loaned billions of dollars to the island nation during the decade-long reign of Rajapaksa&#8217;s elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After talks with the new leader, India&#8217;s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country would give US$400 million in credit to Sri Lanka to improve its economy and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He offered another US$50 million to boost Sri Lanka&#8217;s security and intelligence gathering \u2013 notably after the April 21 attacks by Muslim radicals that killed 258 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;A strong and prosperous Sri Lanka is not just in India&#8217;s interest but the entire Indian Ocean region,&#8221; Modi said as he welcomed Rajapaksa for the three-day visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The security and development of our two countries are interlinked. Therefore it is only natural that we remain mindful of each other&#8217;s security and sensitivities,&#8221; he added.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy rthk Narendra Modi greets Sri Lanka&#8217;s new leader, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Photo: AP India, anxious to counter China&#8217;s influence in the region, on Friday offered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Sri Lanka as the island&#8217;s new president made his maiden overseas trip in New Delhi. Gotabaya Rajapaksa&#8217;s visit to India just 12 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95790","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=95790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}