India and Japan have jointly agreed to cooperate with Sri Lanka to boost regional connectivity in the strategic Indo-Pacific, a report said, amid China’s aggressive military manoeuvring in the resource-rich region. The US, India and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarising its man-made islands over the past few years.
Sri Lanka is a key part of China’s belt and road initiative, a long-term plan to fund and build infrastructure linking China to the rest of the world. But China’s unproductive projects in Sri Lanka, including the Hambantota port, which Beijing took over on a 99-year lease in 2017 as a debt swap, have come under sharp criticism. Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $3 billion bailout programme to help Sri Lanka overcome its economic crisis and catalyse financial support from other development partners, a move welcomed by Colombo as a “historic milestone” in the critical period.