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Sri Lanka Is Now The Ham In The Sandwich Between India And China

June 17, 2009

Sri Lanka Is Now The Ham In The Sandwich Between India And ChinaMartin McCauley writes: The defeat of the Tamil Tigers (TT) by the Sri Lankan army has changed the geopolitics in South Asia. Since independence in 1947, India has been the dominant partner in the Indo-Sri Lankan relationship. This is no longer so. A new power has appeared on the scene: China. Sri Lanka will now find itself squeezed between these two giants of the developing world.The turning point in the war of independence being fought by the Tamil Tigers occurred in 2007 when TT aircraft bombed Colombo airport without meeting any resistance. Such was the shock that the government feared that the Sinhalese could lose control of the country. The Sri Lankan military had been trying without success to capture TT territory in the north.

In this desperate situation, President Mahinda Rajapaksa repaired to Beijing in April 2007. China agreed to deliver artillery guns, armoured personnel carriers and infantry equipment. More importantly Beijing agreed to deliver six F7 jet fighters capable of destroying the TT air force, its landing strips and military targets such as command posts, underground bunkers and ammunition storage depots.

Beijing urged Islamabad to deliver arms to Sri Lanka and to train Sri Lankan pilots. Indian intelligence sources suggest that specialists from Pakistan and China had already been in Sri Lanka for about a year helping the Sri Lankans to plan combat missions. Pakistan supplied Colombo with HJ8 anti-tank missiles. After the air raid on Colombo airport Colombo ordered the JY11 radar system from China but it was not delivered due to objections by India.

The victory parade on June 3 revealed the extent to which Sri Lanka has been provided with weapons by a large number of countries. On display were Chinese made armoured vehicles and artillery, Czech multiple rocket launchers, and Indian mobile radar and anti-aircraft guns. The jet fighters included Ukrainian MIG27s, Chinese F7, Israeli Kfir C7 and Russian MI24 and US Bell helicopters.

Sri Lankan attempts to procure Chinese weapons go back to the 1980s. Beijing was conscious of the fact that India supported the TT. All this changed very recently. China prevented attempts to place the war against the TT – an ethnic war – on the agenda of the Security Council of the United Nations.

China’s economic aid to Sri Lanka was only a few million dollars in 2005 but rose to over $1 billion in 2008. In comparison the US approved only $7.4 million and Great Britain £1.25 million last year.

What does China get in return? In May 2007 agreed on a ‘friendship city relationship’. This refers to the Hambantota Development Zone (HDZ). It includes building a harbour, bunkering facilities and a tank farm. It will cost over $1 billion and will take over 15 years to complete.

The HDZ is following the same pattern as Gwadar in Pakistan. It is dual purpose: civil and military. Its deep water harbour will provide facilities for Chinese merchant ships, container ships, oil and gas tankers as well as naval vessels and nuclear submarines patrolling in the Indian Ocean. It will be able electronically to monitor Indian Ocean civil and military traffic and the US electronic surveillance from Diego Garcia as well as the Indian nuclear facility in the Bay of Bengal.
China will also be able to establish a space monitoring station which will include ballistic missiles as well. The vast Chinese fishing fleet in the Indian Ocean, which doubles as gatherers of intelligence, will be able to use Hambantota as a base.

The refusal of India and the United States to provide Sri Lanka with the military hardware it needed to fight the TT has rebounded spectacularly in their face. South Asia will never be the same again. Sri Lanka, for the first time, will be able to manage its own defence. After China’s démarche, India will have to make Colombo an offer it cannot refuse.

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