Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, in Colombo Telegarph, August 2022, where the title reads “Ripples In The Indian Ocean: Yuan Wang 5 & Easter Sunday 2019”The alarm bells had been ringing for some time in Sri Lanka. The island nation is strategically located at the center of the Indian Ocean on the busiest trade and Undersea Data Cables routes in the world and hence perpetually in the cross-hairs of big power rivalry.For those who missed the signs if not the red flags; ripples caused by the US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s Pivot to Asia last week announced loud and clear that colonialism and Cold War are back, big time in the mythical “Free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Mike Pompeo with Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena in October 2020
INDIAN OCEAN (June 27, 2021) An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter attached to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21, assigned to Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS 18), flies with cargo during a vertical replenishment exercise with Sri Lanka Navy Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel SLNS Gajabahu (P-626), left, as a part of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Sri Lanka, June 27. In its 27th year, the CARAT series is comprised of multinational exercises, designed to enhance U.S. and partner navies’ abilities to operate together in response to traditional and non-traditional maritime security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. (Sri Lanka Navy Media courtesy photo)
