A historic stopover. Emmanuel Macron will travel to Sri Lanka on Friday evening July 28, on his way back from his Pacific tour, the Elysée Palace announced on Wednesday evening July 26.
The head of state will meet with the president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on the occasion of “this historic visit, the first of a French president to Sri Lanka”, argued the Elysée. This visit “will be an opportunity to deepen bilateral relations and discuss the regional and international challenges of the two countries”, the same source added.
Mr. Macron is in Oceania this week: after New Caledonia from Monday to Wednesday, the French head of state has arrived in Vanuatu and still has to go to Papua New Guinea.
His stopover in Sri Lanka takes place while this island off the coast of India, nine times smaller than France and populated by some 22 million inhabitants, has been going through a deep economic and political crisis for more than a year. President Wickremesinghe took power there a year ago, after the flight of his predecessor, pushed out by monster demonstrations against the backdrop of the country’s worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948.
A bankrupt country
Helped in particular by the IMF, Sri Lanka has since been trying to get back on its feet, even if the country should remain bankrupt until 2026. But its geopolitical situation remains fragile, torn between two great rival powers: the Indian neighbor, and the China.
Beijing is indeed the main creditor of the country and a Chinese company acquired for 99 years the concession of the northern port of Hambantota whose Colombo could not reimburse the bills of the important loan granted by Beijing for its construction.
A 1.4 billion dollar (about 1.26 billion euros) land reclamation project near the port of Colombo – the largest foreign investment ever seen in Sri Lanka – is also worrying India, which fears that Beijing don’t use it as a listening post. A part was initially to come under Chinese sovereignty.
Sri Lanka is located halfway on the main international trade route between Europe and East Asia. And Colombo and Hambantota are the only deep water ports between Dubai and Singapore.