The South China Morning Post (February 25) reported that Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told Ceylon Today on February 20 that “the previous government made a mistake on the Hambantota port deal when they cancelled the lease and gave it on a longer period of 99 years plus another 99 years once the first term ends”. He said the 99-year lease of the Hambantota port to China could be extended to 198 years, after reports that Colombo was revisiting the agreement. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, younger brother of two-time former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, said he wanted to renegotiate the deal with China soon after he took office in late 2019, but later denied he had such a plan. However, on February 6 the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority told Ceylon Today that the President was revisiting the port deal. General Daya Ratnayake also said Sri Lanka had not gained much from the agreement and that it had relocated its naval base from the area controlled by China “after many discussions with the Chinese officials”. Ratnayake was quoted as saying “We are revisiting the proposal even now. It was unfortunate and such a deal on Hambantota port shouldn’t have been done. But the review process is going on.” On February 24, China denied the deal was being renegotiated. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that the port’s operations were expanding and “The relevant reports are inconsistent with facts.” He said the deal was negotiated under an “equal and voluntary basis” between the two countries, and that it was intended to transform the port into a logistics, transport and industrial hub in the Indian Ocean. He added that “With mutual efforts from the Chinese and Sri Lankan sides, the Hambantota port has overcome the challenges of the pandemic and has maintained good momentum in expanding operations”.

(Comment: The Hambantota Port deal was signed in 2017 by the previous Sri Lankan government to cover its debts to China.)