Japan offers to boost Sri Lanka security as China makes inroads
Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera will visit the port in Hambantota, which Colombo has leased to a Chinese state-owned company for 99 years
Japan has pledged to help strengthen Sri Lanka’s maritime security, authorities said Tuesday, as Tokyo tries to counter China’s strategic grip on the Indian Ocean island.
President Maithripala Sirisena thanked Japan’s Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera for donating two coastguard patrol craft costing over US$11 million in total, his office said in a statement after talks in Colombo.
“Attention has been drawn to further strengthening maritime security cooperation between Japan and Sri Lanka,” the statement said.
The visit came a week after the US State Department gave US$39 million to Colombo to strengthen the island’s naval capabilities.
Sirisena said he was happy that Onodera, the first Japanese defence minister to visit, was travelling to two strategic ports on the island.