U.S. considers Sri Lanka a ‘real estate’ in Indo-Pacific region
(Courtesy of the Asian Tribune)
The U.S. State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells officially described Sri Lanka a “real estate” in the Indo-Pacific region when she addressed the foreign media in the Department’s Foreign Media Center in Washington Friday, 24 January.
“Sri Lanka occupies some very important real estate in the Indo-Pacific region, and it’s a country of increasing strategic importance in the Indian Ocean region”, Ms. Wells declared.
In official Washington defense documents Sri Lanka is noted as a ‘willing partner’ of Washington in its military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, a maneuver accelerated since Trump became president in 2017.
Sri Lanka has already entered into an ‘expanded’ 83-page Acquisition and Cross-Services Agreement (ACSA) with the United States in August 2017. The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), a pact, if signed, would help activate the ACSA to bring American military boots into Sri Lankan soil transforming the Island into a US Military Hub that would help Washington to maintain a military hegemony – in the name of Open and Free Indo-Pacific Region –against the Peoples Republic of China. Connected to all these is the now pending – and under review – Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact (MCC).
Alice Wells was accompanied by President Trump’s Special Assistant for the Asian region in the National Security Council (NSC) Lisa Curtis on an official visit to Colombo January 24 to meet President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In the same vein declaring Sri Lanka a real estate in the Indo-Pacific region, assistant secretary revealed to the foreign journalist corps that an official letter from President Trump was handed over to Sri Lanka president giving a hint what was in the letter saying that the U.S. president emphasized the value the continued engagement between the two nations underscoring the two countries involvement in the Indo-Pacific region.
“In our meeting with the president, Lisa Curtis and I conveyed a letter from President Trump emphasizing the value that we place on continued engagement with Sri Lanka.
“We have compelling shared interests that include countering violent extremism, strengthening maritime security, preventing narcotics smuggling, promoting investment and economic growth as part of a free and open Indo-Pacific” Ms. Wells said.
Lisa Curtis of the NSA joined state department’s Alice Wells to communicate President Trump’s desire to have Sri Lanka within Washington’s military expansion in the region – in sweetened language – was to give the message that the endeavor was White House’s priority. ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ is the key word of the whole exercise.
When the state department official gave a breakdown of her dialogue with the Indian officials following her engagement with Sri Lanka’s president, Washington’s desire in the Asian region was well manifested.
She told: “I think it’s clear that India’s broadening strategic horizons over the past two decades have resulted in a shift away from a passive foreign policy into one that more vigorously advances Indian interests. Nowhere is that more true than in the Indo-Pacific region. Whether it’s in our growing maritime and naval cooperation, the Quad, India’s Act East Policy, there’s virtually no daylight in our approaches to the Indo-Pacific. Deputy National Security Advisor Pottinger’s remarks at Raisina endorsing an Indo-Pacific region stretching from California to Kilimanjaro only further reinforced the strategic convergence.
“My official meetings also focused on how to build on the diplomatic and defense gains achieved during the 2+2 ministerial dialogue last December: With continued progress on defense cooperation.”
The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between foreign and defense ministers of U.S. and India was held on 14 December in Washington which cemented the military bond between the two countries in the Indo-Pacific region which also discussed drawing literal nations in the region such as Sri Lanka as “willing partners”.
Naming Sri Lanka a valuable ‘real estate’ in the Indo-Pacific region, getting literal states in the region as ‘willing partners’ for Washington’s endeavor, the emphasis of a ‘successful’ 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in Washington, Trump administration’s seriousness about militarizing the Indo-Pacific region to combat Chinese expansion giving such exercise under a cover of ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ are directly connected to the ‘verbal attack’ Assistance Secretary Alice Wells made against the Chinese-Pakistani collaboration last November 21 in Washington and the official engagements the US had in Sri Lanka and India January 14-16.
Leaders in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of Pakistan were stunned in late November when a senior U.S. government official issued a strong verbal attack on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). On November 21 in Washington, D.C., U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asia Affairs Alice Wells spoke at length about the CPEC at a public event, criticizing multiple elements of the $62 billion flagship component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Ms. Wells cast doubt upon claims that CPEC will generate sustainable economic development in Pakistan and criticized the project’s cost escalations and non-transparent processes of awarding CPEC contracts to Chinese firms.
With India in military partnership with the United States and Sri Lanka’s close proximity to India in political and economic spheres, Sri Lanka is in a cross-road having surrounded by Washington, New Delhi and Beijing.
By Daya Gamage
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