About: http://data.cimple.eu/news-article/8b4e5f00d26896c43535cde04b830a77a9d90021adc7bde4a686df2a     Goto   Sponge   NotDistinct   Permalink

An Entity of Type : schema:NewsArticle, within Data Space : data.cimple.eu associated with source document(s)

AttributesValues
rdf:type
schema:articleBody
  • Sri Lanka will offer a strategically located deep-sea port to India and Japan, an official said Tuesday, as the island seeks to balance traditional ties against China's rising regional influence. The government last month abruptly pulled out of an agreement with Delhi and Tokyo to jointly develop the partially built East Container Terminal, located next to a $500-million Chinese-run container jetty within the capital Colombo's sprawling port. But Colombo reversed course Tuesday, offering the West Container Terminal (WCT), which is yet to be built and located on the other side of the Chinese-run jetty known as the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT). "The discussions to develop the WCT will be only with India and Japan," government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters in the capital. Rambukwella said the cabinet decided Monday to allow India and Japan to have an 85 percent stake in the West Container Terminal -- the same terms China was granted when building the CICT. It's unclear how Tokyo and Delhi will divide their majority stake in the port. The government said the Indian High Commission in Colombo has "approved" Sri Lanka's latest offer. There was no immediate response from India's foreign ministry in New Delhi, and a government spokesman said Japan has yet to respond to the new proposal. The government blamed trade unions calling for local instead of foreign development for last month's abrogation of the East Container Terminal, which will now be completed by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. Colombo is located in the Indian Ocean between the major hubs of Dubai and Singapore, meaning control of its ports is highly sought after. Two Chinese submarines berthed at the CICT -- which started operations in 2013 -- in 2014, sparking concerns in India which considers neighbour Sri Lanka to be within its sphere of influence. Since then, Sri Lanka has refused permission for further submarine calls. In December 2017, unable to repay a huge Chinese loan, Sri Lanka allowed China Merchants Port Holdings to take over the southern Hambantota port, which straddles the world's busiest east-west shipping route. The deal, which gave the Chinese company a 99-year lease, raised fears about Beijing's use of "debt traps" in exerting its influence abroad. India and the United States have also expressed concerns that a Chinese foothold at Hambantota could give Beijing a military advantage in the Indian Ocean. aj/grk/oho
schema:headline
  • Sri Lanka offers strategic deep-sea port to India, Japan
schema:mentions
schema:author
schema:datePublished
http://data.cimple...sPoliticalLeaning
http://data.cimple...logy#hasSentiment
http://data.cimple...readability_score
http://data.cimple...tology#hasEmotion
Faceted Search & Find service v1.16.115 as of Oct 09 2023


Alternative Linked Data Documents: ODE     Content Formats:   [cxml] [csv]     RDF   [text] [turtle] [ld+json] [rdf+json] [rdf+xml]     ODATA   [atom+xml] [odata+json]     Microdata   [microdata+json] [html]    About   
This material is Open Knowledge   W3C Semantic Web Technology [RDF Data] Valid XHTML + RDFa
OpenLink Virtuoso version 07.20.3238 as of Jul 16 2024, on Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-musl), Single-Server Edition (126 GB total memory, 3 GB memory in use)
Data on this page belongs to its respective rights holders.
Virtuoso Faceted Browser Copyright © 2009-2025 OpenLink Software