Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) Director General Asanga Abeyagoonasekera was invited to speak on the panel “China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean: Implications for the U.S. and its regional allies” at the prestigious think tank in Washington DC, the Hudson Institute on April 20.
At the panel, the Director General INSSSL emphasized the important role Sri Lanka could play as the “regional stabilizer” in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) due to the Islands geostrategic position. He said, “geopolitical thinker Halford Mackinder rightly identified almost a century
ago, the two outer islands in his work, which is Great Britain playing a significant role in the Atlantic Ocean and Japan in the Pacific Ocean. Sri Lanka sitting at the outer crescent is also an island which could play a significant role in the Indian Ocean in this century, specially as a stabilizer and promote peace as rightly spelled out in 1971 by former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayake as the “Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace”.
Referring to the works of geopolitical thinker Rudolf Kjellen he said, China has already developed three primary attributes to reckon as a great power which is spaciousness, freedom of movement and internal cohesion. Director General said, China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is the modern day Marshal Plan of China, to assist many developing nations and project as a global power.
He said, it is wrong to see Chinese loans as predatory loans, China has assisted many developing nations to build infrastructure, India should not worry of the Chinese sphere of influence in Sri Lanka because all foreign policy decisions are carefully calibrated by our policy makers along with the experienced foreign service officers and they are not knee jerk reactions. Sri Lanka will never allow military bases as we promote peace in the region. The key challenge is, even after 70 years of independence from colonial past, India Sri Lanka and surrounding nations have failed to develop the economic condition.
The other panelists include Visiting Fellow Hudson Institute Saturo Nagao, Research Fellow and Director Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia Hudson Institute Aparna Pandey, Senior Fellow Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Toshi Yoshihara.
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