Ranil stresses Hambantota port is not being sold to China

by Sivakami
Apr 8, 2017

The Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe this week reiterated that there were no plans to sell Hambantota port to China, it would only be leased. 

"There is no preliminary draft regarding handing over the Hambanthota Port to anyone," Mr Wickremesinghe was quoted by Colombo Page as saying to parliament on Wednesday. 

He explained that the port deal was entered into because Sri Lanka could not pay the loans previously borrowed from China and that the new port deal was part of an agreement to have the loans written off. 

The deal has faced significant backlash within the some Sinhala voters who have warned that part of the island is being sold off. 
 

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button