Adani Group to invest in Colombo Port’s East Container Terminal: Sri Lankan President 

January 15, 2021: In his government’s first admission yet of Indian involvement in developing a container terminal at the strategically coveted Colombo Port, president of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa said 49 percent of the investment will come from the Adani Group and other stakeholders.

“President Rajapaksa was addressing representatives of the port’s worker unions, amid their persisting resistance to any foreign involvement in the proposed project to develop the East Container Terminal (ECT),” reported The Hindu.

The development comes a week after external affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Colombo, during which he reportedly urged the Sri Lankan side to expedite finalising the deal. While 66 percent of the transhipment business at the terminal is linked to India, New Delhi’s strategic interest in having a presence at the Port, located along with one of the world’s shipping lanes, is no secret.

In May 2019, the predecessor government, led by Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with India and Japan for the project. The three countries agreed that the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) would retain 100 percent ownership, while a jointly-owned Terminal Operations Company , 51 percent stake with Sri Lanka, and 49 percent with India and Japan, would run the terminal.