{"id":55652,"date":"2017-10-04T00:54:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T04:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55652"},"modified":"2017-10-04T02:37:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T06:37:49","slug":"sri-lankan-govt-linking-up-with-us-led-war-drive-against-china-will-have-catastrophic-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55652","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan Govt Linking Country With US Led War Drive Against China Will Have Catastrophic Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nanda Wickremasinghe <\/strong><\/p>\n

While rapidly strengthening its military ties with Sri Lanka, the Trump administration is voicing concerns over Colombo\u2019s \u201cunsustainable debts\u201d with China. These views were outlined last month by Alice Wells, the US acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, in a report to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

Entitled, \u201cMaintaining US Influence in South Asia: the FY 2018 budget,\u201d the report deals with Washington\u2019s foreign assistance to South Asian countries including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, over the next financial year.<\/p>\n

Wells told the House Foreign Affairs committee that Sri Lanka\u2019s \u201chistoric\u201d elections in January 2015 had \u201cushered in a path to reform and reconciliation\u201d She also noted, however, that Washington would \u201ccontinue its oversight of implementation\u201d of steps outlined in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution passed in October 2015.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The \u201chistoric\u201d election referred to by Wells is the US-backed, regime-change operation that ousted former President Mahinda Rajapakse and replaced him with Maithripala Sirisena. The US opposed Rajapakse\u2019s close relations with China and demanded that Colombo fall into line with Washington\u2019s military preparations against Beijing.<\/p>\n

The US supported Rajapakse\u2019s war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, after the LTTE\u2019s defeat in 2009, Washington sponsored resolutions in the UNHCR calling for an international war crimes investigation into the decades-long conflict. This had nothing to do with exposing Sri Lankan war crimes but was to pressure Rajapakse to end Colombo\u2019s close ties with China.
\nThe UNHCR resolutions were dropped soon after the pro-US Sirisena government came to power and replaced with a new diluted proposal that allowed Colombo to establish a \u201cdomestic mechanism\u201d to investigate human rights violations.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wells told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that the new Sri Lankan government was committed to a \u201creform agenda,\u201d but significantly added, that it had a \u201cgrowing interest in expanding engagement with the US, including in military-to-military relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

US assistance to Sri Lanka, however, will only be $3.4 million for the 2018 financial year, 92 percent less than in 2017. Although Wells did not explain why this cut had occurred, it appears that Washington is concerned about the Sri Lankan government\u2019s recent investment deals with China.<\/p>\n

The Indian-based Economic Times reported that Wells told the hearing that \u201cChina is providing non-concessional loans that promote unsustainable debt burdens, which I think are increasingly now of concern to the Sri Lankan people in the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wells also declared that the US is \u201cusing its tools to reinforce a message of reform, and to bring Sri Lanka into a space where they too will institutionalize the principles of the Indo-Pacific\u2014freedom of navigation, transparency, non-militarization humanitarian assistance and disaster relief at its core.\u201d
\nThese statements are significant. Washington\u2019s concerns are not Sri Lankan \u201cunsustainable debt burden,\u201d humanitarian relief or disaster relief but its ongoing economic relations with Beijing and the requirement that it fall into line with US strategy. \u201cFreedom of navigation\u201d is the catch phrase used by Washington to justify its provocative challenges to Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Soon after Sirisena came to power, Colombo halted some investment projects with China, such as the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City Project and South Asia\u2019s tallest building, the Lotus Tower. But facing a foreign loan default, the cash-strapped government, turned to Beijing to negotiate an easing of the debt burden.<\/p>\n

The government eventually signed an agreement with China Merchant Holdings Company to sell a 70 percent of share in the Hambantota Port for $1.2 billion, hoping to offset part of its loan repayments. It has also given a green light for the resumption of other Chinese-financed projects.
\nWells remarks are a thinly-veiled warning to Colombo that it must strictly follow Washington\u2019s line. This is the only meaning of her declaration that Sri Lanka must \u201cinstitutionalize the principles of the Indo-Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s methods to \u201creinforce a message of reform\u201d will no doubt include behind-the-scenes threats to ramp up the UNHRC war crimes allegations against Colombo if it continues to move closer to Beijing.
\nThe Indian Express has reported that the US Senate Appropriations Committee opposed the 92 percent cut in aid to Sri Lanka and last month tabled a separate bill calling for $43 million in 2018. The committee declared that Sri Lanka should be assisted because of its strategic location and the impact of the decades-long war on the country. The Pentagon is nevertheless strengthening its military ties with Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Addressing the Indian Ocean Conference in Colombo at the end of August, Wells announced the first ever US-Sri Lanka joint naval exercise, Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training or CARAT 2017, which will occur this month at Trincomalee. The exercise will be conducted by the US Seventh Fleet, which is at the centre of Washington\u2019s war plans against China, and follows the Malabar naval exercise held in July, which involved India, US and Japan.<\/p>\n

US war ships have been making frequent visits to Colombo since 2015 and the US Marine Corps are training Sri Lankan marines and navy soldiers, including on the Guam naval base in the western Pacific.
\nIndia, Washington\u2019s main strategic and military ally in South Asia, has voiced concern over Colombo\u2019s recent Hambantota Port deal and loan agreements with China. This was reflected in an August 13 article by Indian analyst Swaran Singh in the Daily Mirror.<\/p>\n

Entitled, \u201cWhy India is worried about China consolidating in Sri Lanka?\u201d Singh described the loans from Beijing to Colombo as a \u201cdebt trap\u201d that would force India to \u201cshore up its defence mechanism\u201d with Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

India is currently bolstering defence ties with Sri Lanka. The Indian and Sri Lankan navies have resumed their annual SLINEX exercises. This year\u2019s event was held at the Viskhapatnam naval base and in the Bay of Bengal from September 4\u201314. Joint exercises involving US, Indian and Sri Lankan naval personnel were also held last month at the Welisara navy camp, near Colombo.<\/p>\n

Behind the backs of workers and the poor, the Sri Lankan government is tying the country to the US-led war drive against China that will have catastrophic consequences for the working class in South Asia and the world.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:World Socialist Web Site<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Nanda Wickremasinghe While rapidly strengthening its military ties with Sri Lanka, the Trump administration is voicing concerns over Colombo\u2019s \u201cunsustainable debts\u201d with China. These views were outlined last month by Alice Wells, the US acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, in a report to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Entitled, \u201cMaintaining US …<\/p>\n

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