Sri Lanka needs to position itself to benefit from the shift in development from East Asia and the Asia Pacific region into South Asia, using its ports and maritime industries, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said.
“We have an identity of our own in trading,” President Wickremesinghe said at the Galle Dialogue; International Maritime Conference on October 12.
“You have the Gulf states, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, two big economic centers coming up, immediately followed by Africa, which is to become a center of its own.
“From the emergence of these three centers, Sri Lanka as a strategic location, is positioned to benefit from the shift of development from South East Asia and the Asian Pacific, into the Indian Ocean.”
The importance of ports and strengthening of maritime industries was underscored as he spoke of the emerging “New World Order ” of the Indian Ocean, one that is geopolitically independent from the mature global powers of the West.
“We have Colombo which is a regional logistical hub, and Trincomalee which is built with Indian support,” he said.
“As the eastern Indian Ocean develops, we would also benefit from it. Connecting Hambantota with Africa, which is to become a major economic center in 2050, would solidify its presence as a commercial port.
“We have to be in the game. The airlines are basically dominated by UAE and Qatar. There’s a new paradigm developing.”
President Wickremesingh said Indian Ocean region countries had so far tended to stay out of geopolitics, but there should be freedom of navigation and for undersea cables.
“We all have different views on the Ukraine war,” Wickremesinghe said.
“If you look at the countries that didn’t want to get involved, the vast majority were from around the Indian Ocean. You see, there is a political thinking here, which must be taken into context
The region is home to 34 percent of the world’s population and accounts for 25 percent of the world’s GDP, Ram Madhav, President of India Foundation said.
One-third of the world’s bulk cargo traffic and 80 percent of the world’s oil shipments travel through the region’s waters. It also produces 40 percent of the world’s offshore petroleum reserves,
“The Indian ocean is turning into the focal point of strategic competition and power politics,” Madav said.
“Many countries in the region have been victims of debt traps and have resulted in becoming crumbling economies. Who would be deciding the destiny of the region? The regional powers are the global powers.”
“Can an institutional framework be developed in the region for facilitating management and governance of the regional order in the ensuing decades. Can the region stay out of the evolving big power’s rivalries without being forced into taking a side?,” he asked.
