Amid Reports on Chinese Expansion of Bases, Sri Lanka Unveils SOP: Need for a Reality Check?
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera
India has realized it cannot possibly balance China’s growing influence on its own, nor can it afford to have the U.S. leave the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) given China’s significant presence in the island littorals. New Delhi requires the island nations much more than in the past to collectively balance Indian Ocean security. Sri Lanka is pivotal in this equation. Reports published by Aid Data and RAND have identified the Sri Lankan port Hambantota as a highly probable PLA military base. This issue brief attempts to analyze the US research reports and further draws attention to the geopolitical trends in the IOR, where India, China, and the U.S. are entangled in a great power competition. Against this backdrop, how will Sri Lanka maneuver its foreign policy? Will India further facilitate space for the U.S., just like in the past establishment of Diego Garcia? What will be the success of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) introduced by the Sri Lankan government due to security sensitivities concerning New Delhi?
Related Publications
-
AUKUS, Advanced Capabilities and Defense Integration in the Indo-Pacific
Nearly two years on from the inception of AUKUS in September 2021, the contours of this strategic partnership have begun to take a more concrete shape. Specifically, the roadmap for […]
-
The SCO: Whither Balancing?
Since late last year, when India took over the presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in September and the G-20 in December, 2023 was being branded as India’s “pivotal” […]
-
Can India Rupture the Semiconductor Market?
In June 2023, India announced its decision to reopen the application process for existing and new applicants interested in setting up semiconductor fabrication plants (commonly called fabs). The process will […]
-
Kenya and the Indo-Pacific: The Rationale for an “Outlook” and Why Kenya (and East Africa) Matters
This issue brief argues that Kenya should carefully consider promulgating an Indo-Pacific outlook given the seismic shifts in global distributions of power and the resulting great power rivalry. The future […]
-
Can the China-India Bilateral Gain Momentum in 2023?
The Tawang incident in December 2022 was not a surprise. Both India and China have been steadily investing in border infrastructure development as their respective forces have entered into clashes […]
-
South Korea as a Nuclear State: Trade-Offs and Choices
South Korea’s launch of its own Indo-Pacific strategy in December 2022 started the country’s ascent into “strategic clarity” for the US-led Indo-Pacific construct, winning favor with Washington for this policy […]