PM of Pakistan Visits Sri Lanka

In News

• Recently, the Prime Minister of Pakistan has arrived in Sri Lanka to boost ties.

Key Highlights

• The PM participated in a joint Trade and Investment Conference’ aimed at promoting trade and investment between the two countries.
  • He announced a new USD 50 million defence credit line facility.
• The two sides stressed the need for a stronger partnership for supporting and coordinating with each other in dealing with matters related to security, terrorism, organized crime and drug and narcotic trafficking as well as intelligence-sharing.
• The Pakistan delegation invited Colombo to use China Pakistan Economic Corridor  (CPEC) for trade with China and Central Asia.
  • The CPEC would help enhance Sri Lanka’s connectivity “right up to Central Asia”, while trade ties would bring Pakistan and Sri Lanka “closer together”.

Implications on India

• Ties between Pakistan and Sri Lanka through CPEC  would hamper India’s strategic interests in the South Asian region and India Ocean.
  • It will serve Beijing’s strategic ambition to encircle India as China has already constructed the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka provided China critical strategic location in the Indian Ocean.
• An extensive Chinese and Pakistan presence will undermine India’s influence in the Indian Ocean Region.

Steps Taken by India

• Quad Grouping
  • It is an informal strategic dialogue between India, the USA, Japan and Australia with a shared objective to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.
  • The idea of Quad was first presented by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007. But the idea at that time couldn’t move ahead with Australia pulling out of it, apparently due to Chinese pressure.
  • In November 2017, India, the US, Australia and Japan gave shape to the long-pending “Quad” Coalition to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence especially due to the rising dominance of China in the region.

• Project Mausam
  • It was announced by the NDA government in 2014. The project exists at two levels.
    • At the macro level, it aims to re-connect and re-establish communications between countries of the Indian Ocean world, which would lead to an enhanced understanding of cultural values and concerns.
    • At the micro-level, the focus is on understanding national cultures in their regional maritime milieu.

Way Forward

• India can work with nations like Japan in developing regional connectivity. Japan has already outlined a Belt and Road initiative of its own, called the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure under which Japan has put up nearly $150 billion to support infrastructure projects all across the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia.
• India should also improve our access to Europe by expediting projects like INSTC and others.

Source: TH