Dhasa, April 1st: On Tuesday, India has agreed to create three Sri Lankan wind farms on islets shared by the two countries, marking a victory for New Delhi after the project was pulled away from a Chinese business. New Delhi has long been concerned about the region’s expanding Chinese influence.
In 2019, a Chinese company was given a $12 million project to erect wind turbines on three small islands in the Palk Strait between southern India and Sri Lanka, with money from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). However, because of Indian concerns about Chinese activities so close to its shore, construction on the project on the islets of Nainativu, Analaitivu, and Delft was never started, and the project on the islets of Nainativu, Analaitivu, and Delft was ultimately canceled.
A memorandum of agreement was inked to build the installations, according to a joint statement released Tuesday after India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Colombo. India has promised to give funding in place of the ADB, according to Sri Lankan officials.
Last week, Qi Zhenhong, the Chinese ambassador to Sri Lanka, underlined Beijing’s disappointment with the project’s cancellation and warned that it would send a negative message to potential foreign investors.
India is known to be wary of China’s increasing political and economic might in the South Asian country, which is strategically placed at the southern tip 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 its 1948 independence from the United Kingdom.
Colombo has requested further loans from both countries in order to boost its foreign reserves and import necessities such as food, petrol, and medications.