India plans to buy Mattala Airport of Sri Lanka; Checkmate China?

NewsBharati    20-Dec-2017
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New Delhi, December 20: In a great strategic move, India is planning to buy Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport of Sri Lanka to limit China’s ability to operate its Hambantota port as a naval site.

The Mattala airport is only 30 minutes away from a Chinese shipping port in Hambantota. China will not be able to build Hambantota as a naval base without access to the Mattala International Airport. 

In the name of One Belt, One Road initiative, China was trying to dominate in the Indian Ocean region. Hence, control over Mattala airport will give India considerable control over how the Hambantota port is used.

Over the weekend Sri Lanka formally handed over control of Hambantota port to Beijing, as part of a $US1.1 billion, 99-year lease by the state-owned China Merchants Group. The deal effectively gives China an easier path to one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes as well as greater access to the dozens of countries that are bordered by the Indian Ocean.

"With this agreement, we have started to pay back the loans. Hambantota will be converted into a major port in the Indian Ocean," Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said. 

In order to allay India’s security concerns over the Chinese navy’s presence in Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe had earlier ruled out the possibility of the strategic port being used as a military base by any foreign country.

Designed to accommodate one million passengers per year, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport a vanity project by Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that opened in 2013 is a complete dud and receives just a dozen passengers a day.

 
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