SRI LANKA’S STRATEGIC LOCATION AND FOREIGN POLICY RESPONSE TOWARDS INDIA AND US ON CHINESE INVESTMENTS IN SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka being a small state strategically placed between two powerful States India and China, the island nation is significant for India as closest maritime neighbour and on the other hand China has become an all-weather friend to Sri Lanka who has not interfered into the internal political issues and a supportive character in international politics. Sri Lanka has been sandwiched between great power politics of these powerful nations since U.S. is carrying out its strategy using strategic alliance of the United States, India, UK, Japan and Australia to counter the growing influence of China. Most importantly, Sri Lanka being a small state, having balanced relations with the big powers is effective to foster the development goals of the countries. Having understood that this paper discuss Sri Lanka’s strategic location and foreign policy response towards India and United States on Chinese investments in Sri Lanka. This paper further discuss external and internal factors, core issues and intentions of above mentioned powerful nations and Sri Lankan foreign policy towards these powerful nations by fostering closer ties in world politics with two regional giants and the United States.


Introduction
"Whoever controls the Indian Ocean dominates Asia. This ocean is the key to seven seas. In the twenty-first century, the destiny of the world will be decided on its waters"(Ali, 2013). Being part of this strategic ocean mass, as an island and maritime nation, Sri Lanka has attracted the attention of the world's big powers due to its strategic location in the region. Further, Sri Lanka is one of the most strategically prominent states in the Indian Ocean region as a small state. As Sri Lanka lays a close proximity to the regional super power as well as to the main sea routes, it is observed that the two giants in the Asian region have made the presence in Sri Lanka by various means. With the China's Maritime Silk Road initiative, the strategic importance of Sri Lanka has been enhanced by being part of the 'String of Pearls' strategy over Indian Ocean. As a small state in the South Asia, Sri Lanka has tightened her knot with China as well as India in to sustain

2.2.2
Sri Lanka is rich in natural resources such as coal, iron, hydrocarbons, natural gas, and oil. Mainly, natural gas and oil has not been exploited yet. Due to the growing economy and population of millions in the region, there is a huge potential for trade and a large market for Chinese goods.

China has a lot of opportunities in the Indian Ocean region and poses serious
security threats such as piracy, terrorism, drugs, arms smuggling, and weapons of mass destruction. In this context, China can act as a buffer nation against the Sri Lankan threat.

Apart from this, Sri Lanka will play a very important role in China's 'Sea Silk
Road' project. Under this ambitious plan, China has a road construction plan.
China will redevelop the ancient Silk Road connecting Central Asia and Europe with the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor. The purpose is to connect the various ports in the area to expand the Silk Road trade.
Thus the project will be beneficial not only for China and Sri Lanka but also for the South Asian region.
In this back drop, China's policy in South Asia is mainly focused on India. In the last few years, India has emerged as a regional military power with economic power, nuclear power, and missile capability. Development of India as a regional military power is challenging the interest of China in the region. At the same time, India's growing strategic partnership with the United States and Japan is a major concern for China's security. This is emerging as a competitor in the future Asia and beyond. In this Jurnal Diplomasi Pertahanan, Volume 8, Nomor 2, 2022 E-ISSN 2746-8496 107 regard, China has been somewhat successful in increasing its influence in Sri Lanka.
This has become a security concern of India.
According to Beijing's policy, it is to increase China's influence in Sri Lanka and reduce India's influence. It is also making an overall effort to increase its influence in Sri Lanka to control the capabilities of potential adversaries like the US and Japan to threaten the Indian Ocean and China's interests in the region.    On the other, hand India has already become one of the primary naval forces of the Indian Ocean. India seeks even greater maritime presence in the region to protect its national security and economic interests as a regional power. As India's ambitions

Limitation of the study
The difficulty to find literature about Sri Lankan foreign policy objectives is one of the main limitations of this study. Further Since there is no white paper available to reveal Sri Lanka's national interest and foreign policy objectives is also another gap in this paper. This Paper will focus only analysis Sri Lankan foreign policy to India and Western world on close relation with China.

Conceptual framework
The study is trying to understand National interest of Sri Lanka, Foreign policy objectives and what are the most appropriate entrances to achieve foreign policy objectives in the face of regional rivalry between India and China, and United States involvement in using India as Sri Lanka's closest neighbor to deter China in the region.

Result and discussion
Sri Lanka is being an island and her defence, security, development, and future challenges should be looked through the premise of her as a maritime nation. Sri Lanka's location in the Indian Ocean region as an island State is of geostrategic importance to all major global powers. It is also a strategically important maritime hub in the Indian Ocean. In this context, it very important for Sri Lanka as a small country in a geostrategic location to maintain good bilateral and multilateral relations with regional powers and as well as the superpower. The relationship between India and Sri Lanka is very important, India as Sri Lanka's closest neighbour and regional super power. The regional power rivalry between India and China and US support to India to deter China is very much important when achieving foreign policy objectives of Sri Lanka.

National interest of Sri Lanka, ways and means
National Interest of Sri Lanka can be identified from the speeches of the president of Sri Lanka since there is no whitepaper published so far. National interest of Sri Lanka and its foreign policy objectives tend to change with the shifting of the government by the public. Point to consider here is what would be a response of a small state like Sri Lanka when face with the two ascending powers like China and India.
However, political environment of Sri Lanka would try to achieve internal stability in the post war scenario without letting emerge ideology of separatism and try to manage country in the face of economic downturn. Further balance Sri Lanka's position in the global and regional environment while Sri Lanka is experiencing repercussions of regional power rivalry between India and China and focus on economic prosperity of Sri Lanka while exposing into trade benefits from India, China and U.S. and stick in to non-alignment policy. In this context, the priorities of national interest of Sri Lanka can be identified as follows:

Priority one is the national security from internal and external environments
in the form of direct and indirect threats. The highly concern internal threat that Sri Lanka encountering is spread of separatist ideology since the country is experiencing post conflict era after eradication of the separatist terrorist organization in year 2010. This is fuelled by politicians of Southern State of Tamil Nadu, India. The external threat is from Tamil Nadu state from India, The strong political lobby influence Indian Government with the idea of separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka. Further other important concern is that the threat posed by the ISIS to achieve their global engagement choosing Sri Lanka as a platform. Being a small country with limited influencing capacity in terms of foreign policy objectives, Sri Lanka most of the time use diplomatic ties to achieve its foreign policy objectives. When it comes to means for foreign policy objectives, means are determined by the resources available in the country. In terms of Sri Lankan geostrategic location and its importance to world actors is one of the most important element. Further Sri Lanka possess oil and gas reserves but those are yet the extracted. As for every other states, means/tools available to Sri Lanka to shape its foreign policy objectives is as follows: a.

Military.
While maintaining a very limited military with limited capacity, Sri Lanka doesn't possess much bargaining power in the process of achieving foreign policy objectives using military as a tool. Sri Lanka will mainly use military to deter internal threat posed by terrorist organizations and ISIS, further Sri Lanka Navy will engage with Indian fishermen who involve poaching in Sri Lankan waters. Sri Lanka will use military as a soft power in defence diplomatic means mainly to engage regional powers and other nation states as confidence Building Measure. Information. Information and propaganda will be a one of the best methods country like Sri Lanka with have limited power but being a country which eradicated terrorism in military means. This can be conducted through effective use of public media, e platforms and holding conferences, meetings and visits. This will be a good platform for building trust, cooperation and this will be transparent the objectives of foreign policy. This will help reduce mutual distrust, reduce tensions and help to build cooperation and confidence.

c.
Economic. It is important to note that Sri Lanka being a small country having small economy, Sri Lanka doesn't have a bargaining power in terms of economic as a tool in achieving foreign policy objectives. As commonly known that in this globalize world no country can self-sufficient and have a close economy. Sri Lanka's biggest trade partners in the region is China and India and economy of Sri Lanka mainly depend on import quotas offered by European Union and the U.S. in terms GSP+. Further tourism plays a much important role in Sri Lankan economy. In this context maintain better diplomatic ties with EU and the U.S. is much more important and Sri Lanka should develop ways to develop the relationship with above mentioned actors.
As mentioned in the above Sri Lanka is a small country and strategically placed between two powerful States India and China. It is understood that China can be considered as a super power and India will reach to superpower status within next decade. Further the U.S. along with India, UK Japan and Australia is carrying out a strategy to counter the growing influence of China. In this context, India cannot ignore its strategic and other interests while dealing with Sri Lanka. During the insurgency, China was one of Sri Lanka's major arms supplier besides being the supporter of their cause in the UN. Further China's infrastructure development in Sri Lanka especially Hambantota port in the close proximity of India is one of the major concerns of India and U.S. However, Sri Lanka consulted U.S. and India before constructing a harbour and came to an agreement that not to use the port as military or Naval base of China. But Sri Lanka They demanded proper investigations into war crimes before making any serious commitments and even suspended the trade facilities (GSP+) until such investigations take place.
To address above mentioned issues are being facing by Government of Sri Lanka, following ways should be adopted to strike a balance between two regional powers and U.S. and European Union. a.
To balance the Sri Lankan unbiased position among the interesting actors in the region and in the world Sri Lanka will adopt non-aligned foreign policy this will help to mitigate the tension with India over Chinese investment in Sri Lanka. Further this will help to build the trust with the U.S. and Europe.

Conclusion
Sri Lanka being a small state strategically placed between two powerful States India and China, Sri Lanka should be more attentive in purse of foreign policy objectives. In this context Sri Lanka is significant for India as closest maritime neighbour. On the other hand China has become an all-weather friend to Sri Lanka who has not interfered into the internal political issues and a supportive character in international politics. However, the high peaked relations with China have disturbed the relations with India. In this back drop, Sri Lanka needs to have a strategically neutral approach in dealing with the Indian Ocean strategic competition and should especially take the Indo-Lanka relations very seriously. Sri Lanka has experienced several negative outcomes by India for having close relations with China in the regional and international platforms. In the meantime, China has been one of the strongest supporting giant in international politics. Even though, China is commercially more benefited to the country, in the regional context, the traditional hegemonic power over small state by India is unavoidable. Apparently, for a small state, having balanced relations with the big powers is effective to foster the development goals of the countries. Same for Sri Lanka, it need to have strong commitment to the immediate neighbour rather than being more close to the non-South Asian regional power. Apart from the strategic partnership between Sri Lanka and China, for the future prosperity of the country, Sri Lanka should build up a neutral position in conducting its foreign policy with the big powers in the South Asian region.

Acknowledgement
This essay is the outcome of a consistent effort.