H’tota port deal was a mistake: President

Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Newly-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he wants to renegotiate the deal with the Chinese on the Hambantota Port, which is strategically located near one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes with tens of thousands ships passing by a year.

Rajapaksa said this during his first interview as President with Nitin A. Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief of Bharat Shakti.in and SNI.

The previous government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe handed over the Hambantota Port and 15,000 acres of land around it for 99 years to Chinese in December 2017.

The then government justified the sale saying it couldn’t service the loan taken from the Chinese to build the port by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration during 2010-2015.
“…even though China is a good friend of ours and we need their assistance to develop, I’m not afraid to say that was a mistake. I will request them to renegotiate and come with a better (deal) to assist us. Today the people are not happy on that deal, we can think of one year, two years, five years, we have to think of the future, what will happen? 

So, giving a small land for investment is a different thing. To develop a hotel or a commercial property is not a problem, that’s not an issue. The strategically important, economically important harbour, giving that is not acceptable. That we should have control. We have to renegotiate. Giving a terminal for an operation is a different thing, giving some location to build a hotel is different, not the control over a very important place; it is not acceptable. So, that is my position,” President Rajapaksa told Gokhale.

Rajapaksa also said he is looking forward to working closely with both China and India boosting diplomatic and economic relations but stressed that Sri Lanka does not want to get involved in any military or geopolitical rivalry.

“The other thing that I want to tell the world powers like India, Singapore, Japan, Australia, you know, the reality is they are scared of Chinese involvement, that’s a reality. But in our point of view, it is commercial. We are a small country and we want foreign investment to improve our economy. 

So, I invite India, Singapore, Japan and Australia to come and invest here. Don’t allow only China to invest. These governments must encourage their private companies to come and invest, come and help us. Without leaving it to one country and then grumbling,” Rajapaksa said.

“So, I openly say this, because I want them to come and invest in this country. We are a small country; genuinely we don’t want to get involved in these things. Please understand that. Rather than putting pressure on us, understand us and get involved in the economic development of this country,” he added.