New Delhi: India believes Sri Lanka “cannot go back” on its words and “dishonour” an international agreement on developing the East Container Terminal (ECT) even as Gotabaya Rajapaksa government approved a proposal to build the Colombo Port’s Western Container Terminal (WCT).
The Rajapaksa government Tuesday approved the deal for developing the WCT under a joint venture with India and Japan for a period of 35 years.
India and Japan are yet to agree to the deal as New Delhi believes that Colombo “cannot unilaterally take the ECT project off the table” and offer WCT in lieu of it, thereby “dishonouring” an international tripartite agreement, official sources told ThePrint.
The sources also said that the $500-million ECT project was purely a government-to-government deal, while the WCT is between private players and, in all practical purposes, a commercial plan where “the government does not have much say”.
India is having discussions almost “on a regular basis” with the Rajapaksa government on honouring the ECT project. In fact, sources said, the Japanese government are also not “quite happy” with the development.
New Delhi feels the main reasons why the Sri Lankan government jettisoned the ECT can also “get repeated” in the case of the development of WCT, thereby stalling big-ticket investments, sources said.
While India, sources said, will not turn down the proposal to develop the WCT and “promote the project and work towards facilitating it”, the Sri Lankan government will have to reinstate the ECT project as well.
The Sri Lankan government’s cabinet memorandum issued Tuesday said that the ‘Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)’ proposal approved by a negotiating committee had been sent to both the Indian High Commission and the Japanese Embassy in Colombo.
The memorandum also said that the proposal presented by Adani Ports and special economic zone limited (APSEZ Consortium) has been approved by the Indian High Commission.
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The MoU to develop the ECT was signed in May 2019 under the previous Maithripala Sirisena administration with India and Japan.
After the present Rajapaksa government came to power in November 2019 and during his subsequent visit to India the same month, New Delhi was assured by Colombo that the project would take off.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is now watching closely what stance India takes in the resolution on alleged war crimes committed by Colombo during the civil war there at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session.
Sri Lanka wants the resolution to be quashed as it seeks to impose sanctions on the island nation even as the text of the resolution is under discussion in Geneva, sources said.
Last month, Indra Mani Pandey, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, said India remains committed to the “aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka for equality, justice, peace and dignity” and urged Sri Lanka to implement the 13th amendment to its Constitution that is aimed at giving equal rights to the Tamil minorities there.
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