President Xi Jinping’s talk of a “21st-century maritime silk road” linking China to Europe through the seas of south Asia sounds like a grand theoretical concept. But for Sri Lanka, the benefits of ever closer ties with Beijing are real enough.
On Wednesday Mr Xi concluded a two-day visit to the small south Asian island nation with the inauguration of what Sri Lanka describes as its largest ever foreign investment project: the $1.5bn Colombo Port City complex, a series of gleaming high-rises, to be built on reclaimed land in the nation’s capital.
Elsewhere, Mr Xi announced the opening of a Chinese-financed coal-fired power plant, alongside a new $1.6bn currency swap arrangement and a $600m deal to extend a port complex in the southern town of Hambantota.