The Sri Lankan election has delivered a decisive verdict. Gotabaya Rajapaksha is the new president of the island state. His elder brother and ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksha has been sworn in as the prime minister. Sri Lanka watchers in many capitals have their sights focused on Colombo. Mahinda Rajapaksha had led the country into a Chinese debt trap during his tenure as the president before his party lost the elections in 2015. However, the dynamics of geopolitics and an aggressive China have created a new milieu and predictions about which way the newly formed Rajapaksha team would lead the country to remains a grey zone.
The international concern about the Sri Lankan march hereafter is driven largely by its strategically important geographical location. The Indian Ocean island state is situated in close proximity to the sea lanes of communications that link the largest crude oil producers to its west with the energy-hungry economies of the east, including China, Japan and India. The sea lanes through the Indian Ocean carry 80% of the global oil traffic. It’s also the route for exports of these economies and other Indian Ocean countries westwards to markets in Africa, Europe and the American continent. Read More…
