Giving Naval base in Sri Lanka to China will be akin to declaring war on India
Sri Lanka may be topping the list of nations that may be most suitable for a Chinese naval base in the coming years, as per Chinese naval plans, as Beijing seeks to expand its maritime capabilities.
However for Sri Lanka to give permission for this will be like declaring war on India. Thus India will have no options left but to strike back.
Hence it is very obvious that Sri Lanka having historical and ethnic ties going back thousands of years with neighbour India will do no such things. This is just wild imagination running riots of the American Universities so called RESEARCH PROJECTS.
It seems the Americans have forgotten their own reaction to USSR setting up a missile base in Cuba, when Kennedy had brought the world to the brink of a nuclear World War.
The South Asian nation’s Hambantota port is no doubt a very good spot for a naval base. Also the Chinese have invested nearly INR 18500 Crores there. However for all practical purposely will remain a commercial hub only. Of course Chinese Naval Ships, during normal times while passing through can always berth for resupply as per international norms.
So any such assessment by the Aid Data research project at William & Mary university in Virginia is off by 1000km. It is just to spread false information and probably to turn QUAD into a military bloc with help of India. Well India does its own thinking and does not go by such trash research.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) currently only has one overseas military base in Djibouti, on the coast of the Horn of Africa and this too is not a MILITARY BASE in true sense.
Also it is well within strike range of Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force if push comes to shove and so will be Gwadar port in Pakistan Occupied Baluchistan.
As the US and China competition heats up, Beijing is expanding its Naval numbers and trying to match up with Washington’s overseas maritime strength.
Unlike the US, China is not party to international defence alliances – its only formal defence treaty is with North Korea. So no doubt developing overseas naval bases is going to be a priority for China’s military development.
PLAN’s future ambitions may be closely aligned with China’s belt and road initiative. Four of the eight bases shortlisted by Aid Data are in Africa. Although China’s most pressing maritime ambitions are in the South China Sea and the Taiwan strait the report’s authors note that those operations could be conducted “entirely from the Chinese mainland and home naval bases”.
PLAN bases farther afield would help China to preserve shipping routes, especially in the event of western sanctions, and gather intelligence.
However what PLAN has to reconsider that there is an unsinkable “ aircraft Carrier “ in the shape of the Deccan peninsula dominating the entire Indian Ocean Region ……India’s Ocean !!!!
Coming back to the question of a foreign naval base in Sri Lanka, it was the USA which had desperately tried to establish a naval base in Trincomalee. However the rock solid Shrimati Indira Gandhi just not permitted such a move.
In fact it’s high time that Britain be asked to hand over entire Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia back to Mauritius.
