#The_Indian_Ocean_India_China_andSri_Lanka_issues... For the #kind_attention_of_Honorable #Prime_Minister_of_India June 08, 2021.

#The_Indian_Ocean_India_China_andSri_Lanka_issues...

For the #kind_attention_of_Honorable #Prime_Minister_of_India

June 08, 2021.

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The following note sent to The Indian Prime Minister today regarding China's presence in Indian Ocean peace zone. This is a very serious issue in future in connection with the security of Southern tip of India especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala. whereforth my fellow friends please read and create public opinion in this issue. 

#ஒரு_முக்கிய_விஷயம்

#இந்திய_பிரதமருக்கு_அனுப்பட்ட_குறிப்பு வருமாறு 

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கன்னியாகுமரி முனையிலிருந்து 290 கிலோமீட்டர்  தொலைவிலுள்ள இலங்கையிலுள்ள கொழும்பு துறைமுகம் மற்றும் அம்பன் தோட்டா துறைமுகம்(கிட்டத்தட்ட Its 469 hectares of land  Out of which 116 ha is given to China பரப்பளவுள்ள இடத்தை) 99 வருடம் சீனாவுக்கு சொந்தமாக்கும் உரிமைக்கான சட்டத்தை இலங்கை நாடாளுமன்றத்தில் சட்ட வடிவமாக்கி, உரிமையை இன்று வழங்கியுள்ளது இலங்கை அரசு. இது இந்தியாவுக்கு பேராபத்து. இந்து மகாக் கடலில் அமைதி கெட்டு போகும். புவியரசில் பெரிய சிக்கலை ஏற்படுத்தும்.

#KSRPostings

#KSRadhakrishnan_Postings

கே.எஸ்.இராதாகிருஷ்ணன்.

8-06-2021.

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A note on the Indian Ocean, India, China and Sri Lanka

For the kind attention of Honorable Prime Minister of India

June 08, 2021.

 •••••••••••••••••••

     Four important developments in the past few months in Sri Lanka have emphatically signaled the clear and present danger of China’s dominance in the Indian Ocean, its converting Sri Lanka into a “Chinese colony” and laying a siege around Tamil Nadu/ South India. A narrow stretch of sea, which includes the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar in the Bay of Bengal, separates Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka. 

    The four infrastructure developments in Sri Lanka are all backed by China and they are inimical to India’s interests in the region. If proof is needed about China’s expansionism in the Indian Ocean region, these four projects offer it. The  projects are: 1) China building a new Colombo Port City, with a massive financial backing; 2) Beijing receiving permission from Colombo to set up solar or wind power electricity generating stations on the islands of Neduntheevu, Nainatheevu and Analaitheevu, which are located off the Jaffna peninsula; 3) Colombo, handing over the Hambantota Port in southern Sri Lanka, on a 99-year lease to Beijing; and  4) Colombo  granting a 85 per cent stake to  China Merchants Port Holdings in the Colombo International Container Terminals Limited (CICT) at the Colombo Port. 

      As the story headlined, “Dragon’s New Lair: How China’s Expansionism is Taking Root in Sri Lanka”, written by Santosh Chaubey, says, “China always wanted to set up a strong base in sri Lanka, India’s southern neighbour. Doing so will give it two advantages. First, it will be a direct challenge to India’s naval superiority in the Indian Ocean region. Second, China will gain a foothold in critical, commercial seaway and will be in a better position to secure its maritime trade of crude oil.” Chaubey’s story was published in News18 on June 03, 2021.

     What has drawn strong opposition even from the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka is the setting up of Colombo Port City. In simple terms, it will be an exclusive economic zone. China reportedly will have a big or total  control over it. The Port City will come up, with financial backing from the State-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), which will be about $1.4 billion. For this, the CCCC will be rewarded with 287 acres in the City on a 99-year lease.  The Port City will come up on 660 acres of land dredged up from the seafront in Colombo.  This artificially created island, according to information published on a website on May 25, 2021, “is to be developed as a Special economic Zone (called the Colombo Port City Special Economic Zone), to facilitate investments and doing business in Sri Lanka with emphasis on the service economy.”

    Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers including the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, belong to Hambantota. It is a fishing town situated in the southern province of the island. Mahinda Rajapaksa has been elected to Sri Lanka’s Parliament from Hambantota  last period now Member of Parliament from the district of Kurunegala.. China will build a massive port at Hambantota, which will include a jetty that will be more than a km long. Ships calling at Hambantota will have bunkering and refuelling facilities.  China has been given a 99-year lease of the Hambantota port and 15,000 acres of land around it. China wants to build a big industrial park on these 15,000 acres, with full control over it.  The Rajapaksa brothers, who have a predilection for China, are committed to building the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota port.

      What has stoked fears in Tamil Nadu is the short aerial distance between Tamil Nadu and these four projects, where the Chinese will be sitting pretty. The aerial distance between the Port city and Chennai, Tamil Nadu’s capital, is about 700 km.  As the crow flies, the Hambantota port is 288 km from Kanyakumari in the southern tip of Tamil Nadu. 

    The three islands of Neduntheevu, Nainatheevu and Analaitheevu, situated off the Jaffna peninsula, where China will build power stations, are less than 40 km away from Rameswaram/Dhanushkodi, as a crow flies. China’s presence on these three islands will be a distinct security threat to Tamil Nadu/India if China were to set up military, radar or other snooping facilities on these three islands.

     This raises the question: what will happen if Colombo hands over the island of Katchatheevu in the Palk Strait to Beijing? The aerial distance from Katchatheevu to from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu is  25 km. In fact, Katchatheevu belonged to the Raja of Ramnad in Tamil Nadu and there are documents to prove it. In other words, it was situated in India’s territorial waters.  However, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in the name of “good neighbourliness”, ceded the Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka on a silver platter in 1974. The International Boundary Line (IBL) was drawn in such a way that Katchatheevu fell on the Sri Lanka’s waters! Such was the hurry of the then Government of India, led by Indira Gandhi of the Congress, to please her friend Sirimavo Bandaranaike. 

   In fact, the Annual Report of the Ministry of External Affairs, 1974-1975, said, “The recent agreement with Sri Lanka on the division of the historic waters in the Palk Bay, which has also settled the issue of Kachchativu amicably, is an indication of India’s earnestness in evolving a policy of friendship and mutual cooperation with her neighbours.”  A.B. Vajpayee succinctly, sarcastically commented then, “This is not an agreement, this is surrender.”

        As the well-researched two-page article titled, “The Evil empire”, written by Ravi Shankar and published by The New Sunday Express Magazine on June 06, 2021, says: “An ORF [Observers’ Research Foundation] paper sums up ‘Invest, Indebt, Incapacitate’ as China’s geo-economic and political strategy in the  BRI (Belt and Road initiative]  nations. Sri Lanka took Chinese funds to co-develop the Hambantota port. When it could not repay, Beijing demanded equity in the port and 15,000 acres of surrounding land…Maldives owes China $1.4 billion or 88 per cent of its total external debt… Montenegro has borrowed  800 million from China to build a highway with its land as collateral. Should it default, expansionist China will gain a direct entry into Europe. Pakistan is deeply in debt [to China]…”

       With regard to Sri Lanka, China has a long-term strategy in building the four infrastructure projects on the island. These four projects, when completed, will directly impact on the security of south India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala. There is strong opposition to the Port City from the Sinhalese as well. The fundamentalist forces, represented by the Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka, also believe that the establishment of Colombo Port City is one of the long-term plans of China to convert Sri Lanka into its colony or a vassal State. They allege that the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act is vested with enough powers to declare the Colombo Port City as another separate country. Sri Lanka’s Parliament approved the Bill on May 19, 2021, which paves the way for setting up the Colombo Port City. A powerful Commission will run the Port City. Critics of the project allege that the Act will provide the City and the Commission “immunity” from the Sri Lankan laws, big tax concessions and tax incentives for the investors.

    Even Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court observed that certain provisions of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill were unconstitutional. Santosh Chaubey, in his story in News18, says, “… The Bill allows the Port City area to have its own currency and that means China may introduce the Yuan soon. Also, China will regulate movement of the people in the area.”

      From the 1980s, China has been trying to gain an important foothold in South Asia, especially in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

     India and Sri Lanka are littoral States of the Indian Ocean.      Geographically, India or more specifically, peninsular India is centrally located in the Indian Ocean. This gives India gives certain strategic and commercial advantages. From Egypt and South-East Asia, maritime trade routes go close to the coast of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. That is why colonial rulers such as the Englishmen, the Dutch and the French established trade settlements at Pulicat, Chennai, Sadras, Pondicherry, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Tranquebar etc., which are all situated on the Tamil Nadu coast. The colonial rulers established trade settlements on the coast of the undivided Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala as well. Similarly, Bengal and Gujarat, both coastal States, offered advantages for maritime trade. 

      It is not surprising, therefore, that China wants to neutralise India’s strategic and commercial advantages in the Indian Ocean region and hence, China wants to have a dominating presence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. This despite China not being a part of South Asia. Besides, it is not a littoral State of the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, India forms the pivot of South Asia and it is a big littoral State of the Indian Ocean. 

    So Beijing’s ambitions are clear: it will call the shots in South Asia and the Indian Ocean. It has already started doing so in an emphatic manner. Why?

      Sanjay Chatuvedi, in his essay titled, “Emerging ‘New’ Geopolitics of the Indian Ocean – Implications for Peninsular India”, says, “In the overall scheme of global shipping network, the Indian Ocean constitutes a major link. Important shipping trade across the Indian Ocean include ‘Round the world’ container services and oil routes from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to Asia via the Malacca or Lombok Straits and to Europe via the Suez Canal or the Cape of Good Hope (Bateman, 2004: 282). About half of the world’s seaborne trade in crude oil… is shipped from the Middle East… The safety and security of the Indian Ocean is thus a global concern.  Having said that, to quote K.M. Panikkar (1971:85), “while for other countries,  the Indian Ocean is only one of the important oceanic areas, to India it is the vital sea. Her lifelines are concentrated in that area. Her future is dependent on the freedom of the vast water surface. No industrial development, no commercial growth, no stable political structure is possible for her unless the Indian Ocean is free and her shores are fully protected.””

    This paper was published in the book titled “security Dimensions of Peninsular India, edited by Gopalji Malviya and brought out by Centre for security Analysis, Chennai, in 2005.

  Sanjay chatuvedi noted in his paper, “As the 21st century unfolds, the future of peninsular India will remain closely tied to both continuity and change within the triangular interplay among the go-political, economic and strategic forces in the Indian ocean.” He quoted from the executive summary of a conference on “India and the Emerging Geo-politics of the Indian Ocean Region”, held at Honolulu in 2003. 

     The summary said, “All the Indian participants in the conference stressed the importance of the Indian Ocean to India from the economic, political, legal and military perspectives. India’s political and naval leadership is convinced that maritime matters are going to play an increasingly important and critical role. India needs a secure maritime environment to achieve sustained national development. In addition, many Indians see the Indian ocean as India’s backyard and see it as both natural and desirable for India to function as the leader and the predominant influence in the region, the world’s only region and ocean named after a single state.”

     It is not only China that has now acquired a dominating presence in the Indian ocean region. The US, France and Japan have strongly established themselves there. The US has a military base in the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

    Besides Beijing bagging the four massive infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka, it (Beijing) is eyeing Trincomallee in the Eastern province of the island. Trincomallee has one of the finest natural harbours in the world.

   Colonel R. Hariharan, in his paper called, “China’s Influence in India’s Neighbourhood- Part “, dated August 12, 2008, said, “China’s single-minded pursuit of accessing resources has increased its visibility in Asia, Africa and South America. This has also made China support some of the most notorious regimes shunned by the rest of the world, which includes Myanmar, Sudan and Zimbabwe. At the same time, it has embarked upon strategic infrastructure development in friendly countries that would improve China’s strategic reach.

   “This is reflected in China’s growing influence in South Asia where its presence is being firmed up in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, and Nepal at a future date. This has been a cause of security concern not only for India but also for the US.

   “South Asia’s geographic location, midway between the oil-rich Middle East and the South East Asian regions, lends it strategic importance. South Asia borders most of China’s sensitive southern boundary. This gives China the strategic option of opening direct access through South Asia to the international sea lanes of the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean region has always been the scene of power play among Russia, the US and the West, and the theocratic Islamic States because 75 per cent of the global merchant shipping passes through it.”

      Col. Hariharan added, “Having gained a foothold in India’s neighbourhood, China is poised to enormously increase its strategic clout in this region. This is likely to haunt India’s strategic security planners in the coming years.” 

    These words, written in 2008, have already come true. China today has a firm and strategic presence in Sri Lanka, Pakistan (Gwadar port complex), Bangladesh (several infrastructure projects) and Afghanistan. It is manipulating Nepal and there is the danger of Nepal becoming a full-fledged “Chinese colony.” China is manipulating the Maldives as well.

    When the four China-backed projects in Sri Lanka are completed, the peninsular India, especially Tamil Nadu, will come under the ken of the eyes of a cunning China.

This is for your kind notice and do the needful.

With kind regards,

Dated at Chennai on 8th June 2021

                                

 K.S.Radhakrishnan,

 Known political activist in Tamil Nadu,

 Advocate and Arbitrator,

 Editor, Kathaisolli (folklore magazine)

Copy to: 

Honorable Thiru M.K.Stalin, The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

Honorable Shri Amith Shah, The Home Minister of India.

Honorable Shri Rajnath Singh,The Defence Minister of India.

Honorable Smt Nirmala Sitharaman,The Finance Minister of India.

Honorable Shri S.Jayashankar,The External Affairs Minister of India.

Honorable Shri Pinarayi Vijayan,The Chief Minister of Kerala.

Honorable Shri B.S.Yeddyurappa,The Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Honorable Shri Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy,The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. 

Honorable Shri K.Chandrashekhar Rao, The Chief Minister of Telangana.