In 2015, an “India Corner” was inaugurated in the library. After its restoration in the 1990s, both Delhi and the Tamil Nadu government have donated thousands of books to rebuild the collection. There, he donated laptops and computers and offered assistance in the digitisation of the library. While the Chinese have constructed roads and houses in the war-ravaged Tamil areas, Qi’s visit, which included a tour of Vavuniya and Mannar districts too, indicate a desire to expand the engagement on turf where political and people-to-people ties with India are strong.Īmong his stops in the peninsula was the historic Jaffna Library which was burnt down by a mob led by Sinhalese politicians in 1983. While this is not the first time that a Chinese diplomat has visited the Northern Province, it may be the first time that any Chinese ambassador has stayed overnight and engaged in such extensive public diplomacy in the peninsula where India takes its diplomatic and political influence for granted because of the ties of history, language, culture that have remained strong despite Delhi distancing itself from the Tamil separatist cause.Ĭhinese interests and its infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka have been largely focussed on the Sinhala south, particularly due to the snug relations that Beijing has with the Rajapaksas. He even said that talk of “third party” pressure on Sri Lanka to cancel the solar farm on three islands off Jaffna was “fake news”. In conversations with Jaffna’s civil society representatives, Qi responded to questions on the China-India rivalry in Sri Lanka, saying there was more geographical distance between India and Sri Lanka than between India and China since both countries share a border.ĭismissing the rivalry, he said both countries were continuously engaged in resolving their problems.
0 kommentar(er)
