US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to visit Sri Lanka, amid rising Chinese influence in region

The United States will urge Sri Lanka to make "difficult but necessary choices" on its economic relations when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits there next week, a senior US official said on Thursday, apparently referring to China's deepening influence over Colombo.

His trip comes a week before the Nov 3 US election, in which President Donald Trump has made being tough on China a key part of his campaign to secure a second term.  Pompeo plans to warn of risks surrounding China on a trip next week that will take him to Colombo as well as India, Maldives and Indonesia.

Mr Pompeo will ask Sri Lanka to make "difficult" choices on its growing relationship with China amid criticism the island is sliding toward authoritarianism, an official said Thursday.

The trip will come days after Sri Lanka's parliament voted to give sweeping new powers to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a move that the opposition decried as a step toward authoritarian rule.

Mr Pompeo and other US officials have kept up the harsh rhetoric on China, dismissing Beijing's investments across the globe as "debt diplomacy" and alleging that it leaves poorer nations saddled with too much debt.

The populist leader enjoys diplomatic and economic support from China, which lent billions of dollars for projects to Sri Lanka when his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president -- including several white elephants that left the island with a mountain of debt.

Briefing reporters, US officials warned the Sri Lankan government about who they team up with for their economic partnerships, without explicitly naming China.

"We encourage Sri Lanka to review the options we offer for transparent and sustainable economic development in contrast to discriminatory and opaque practises," said Mr Dean Thompson, the senior State Department official for South and Central Asian affairs.

"We urge Sri Lanka to make difficult but necessary decisions to secure its economic independence for long-term prosperity," Mr Thompson said.

China's foreign ministry spokesman dismisssed the comments as showing a "Cold War mentality".

Attempts to use coercion to obstruct normal cooperation between countries will not succeed, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news briefing in Beijing on Friday.

China has been making inroads into South Asia with its Belt and Road Initiative, aimed at financing critical infrastructure in dozens of countries across the world.

In 2017, Sri Lanka   signed over control of a Chinese-financed port and land around it to Beijing after incurring heavy losses, to the alarm of the United States and regional power India.

Mr Pompeo will also visit India, Maldives and Indonesia on an Asian tour whose main goal is expected to be garnering support in countering China.

Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, last year scrapped a previously planned trip to Sri Lanka that was meant to show solidarity after Islamist attacks killed 269 people on Easter Sunday.

Pompeo will be the first US secretary of state since Colin Powell in 2004 to visit Maldives, an archipelago which has also seen a spurt of interest from China, alarming US-friendly regional power India.

Courtesy – REUTERS