Reverse Decision: Sri Lanka Offers India, Japan Partnership to Develop WCT, India Named Adani Ports

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Mar 2: In a bid to repair the dent it had caused in its relations with India and Japan, Sri Lanka has decided to accord partnerships to India and Japan for developing the West Container Terminal (WCT) at the Colombo port and with higher stakes equivalent to China.

In a near total turn-around to its one month old stand, Sri Lanka on Tuesday said it would develop the WCT at the Colombo Port along with India and Japan. Briefing the media on decisions taken at Monday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said approval had been granted to develop the WCT with investors nominated by India and Japan.

Only last month, Sri Lanka had ejected the two partners from a 2019 tripartite agreement to jointly develop the East Container Terminal (ECT). The ground for the decision was given as opposition from the port unions against “foreign involvement” but knowledgeable sources said the reversal was decided under pressure from China. The 2019 agreement for the ECT development with India and Japan was signed by the previous Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe ministry which was reversed by the Rajapaksa government.

While India has named Adani Ports, which was earlier also nominated to invest in the ECT, for the WCT development, Japan was yet to respond to the Sri Lankan offer, the Minister said.

After Sri Lanka reneged on the 2019 agreement, Colombo offered the WCT as an alternative, allowing the foreign investors to hold a higher stake. In the ECT project agreed upon earlier, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority was to hold 51 % stakes. In the WCT proposal, cleared now, India and Japan will be accorded 85 % stakes, similar to the nearby Colombo International Container Terminal, where China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited holds 85 % stakes, authorities said.