Geo-strategic importance of Hambantota Port in the Indian Ocean: A Geo-political Analysis

Abstract

The paper examines the impact of Hambantota port of Sri-Lanka on the geo-political dynamics in the Indian Ocean. Emerging powers like India and China want to control this port to expand their influence in the Indian Ocean. China is among the very few nations in the world which has used geo-politics for its geo-strategic and commercial advantage. It has established a dynamic relationship with many Afro-Asian countries to achieve its aim to become the subsequent superpower. These diplomatic steps precipitating from trade and geo-political ambitions, many a times claimed as a diplomatic and trade inevitability by China, allows it to bargain for the significant infrastructure projects in other countries to sustain its economic growth, and to spread its sphere of influence by investment agreements with the Afro-Asian countries. This aggressive policy of China devoided the competing and neighbouring nations strategic depth in the Indian ocean and African continent. China’s current relationship with the world has significantly changed from what it was in the early 1960s, when its boundaries were bordered by its adverse countries, the friends with either the former Soviet Union or United States of America. It was after the India-China 1962 war and the subsequent Indo-Soviet strategic agreement, China chalked out a strategy to contain its potential adversaries through geo-political containments. India on the other hand too, as an emerging nation is trying to reclaim its historic influence in the Indian Ocean. Also, it is converting its brown water navy into a blue water one to protect its economic and security interests.