India has agreed to build three wind farms in Sri Lanka on islets shared by the two nations, authorities said Tuesday, in a triumph for New Delhi after the project was pulled away from a Chinese business.
New Delhi has long been concerned about China’s expanding influence in the area.
In 2019, a Chinese business was given a $12 million project to erect wind turbines on three tiny islands in the Palk Strait between southern India and Sri Lanka, with finance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
However, due to Indian concerns against Chinese activities so near to its shore, construction on the islets of Nainativu, Analaitivu, and Delft was never completed, and the project on the islets of Nainativu, Analaitivu, and Delft was ultimately abandoned.
A memorandum of agreement was inked to develop the installations, according to a joint statement published Tuesday following India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Colombo.
According to Sri Lankan officials, India has promised to give funds in place of the ADB.
Last week, Qi Zhenhong, the Chinese ambassador in Sri Lanka, underlined Beijing’s disappointment with the wind farms project’s cancellation and warned that it would send a negative signal to potential foreign investors.
India is known to be wary of China’s expanding political and economic might in the South Asian country, which is strategically placed at the southern point of the massive Indian subcontinent.
China and India have been bidding for large infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka, which is experiencing its greatest economic crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1948.
Colombo has requested more loans from both countries in order to shore up its foreign reserves and import necessities like as food, petrol, and medications.
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