In Sri Lanka, Tamil Elections Raise Concerns

Elections slated for Sept. 21 could bring Tamil nationalists to power in Sri Lanka's majority-Tamil Northern Province. In order to incorporate the Tamils and curb the popularity of Tamil nationalist parties, Colombo is building up infrastructure in Tamil areas — while also building up the central government's military capabilities in those areas. These projects are driven largely by investment from China, which is interested in Sri Lanka as an export market and as a platform for its own long-term naval ambitions in the Indian Ocean. Colombo's connections to China are a concern for India, which has an interest in controlling all its peripheral states and the Indian Ocean basin. Sri Lanka needs to balance its relationships with India, which faces political pressure from its own Tamil minority to support the Sri Lankan Tamils, and China, which will support attempts to co-opt the Tamil opposition as a containment strategy.