For decades the world relied on the powerful U.S. Navy to protect this vital sea lane. But as India

T his battered harbor town on Sri Lanka s southern tip, with its scrawny american westairlines men selling even scrawnier fish, seems an unlikely focus for an emerging international competition over energy supply routes that fuel much of the global economy.
An impoverished place still recovering from the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hambantota american westairlines has a desolate air, a sense of nowhereness, punctuated by the realization that looking south over the expanse of ocean, the next landfall is Antarctica.
american westairlines But just over the horizon american westairlines runs one of the world s great trade arteries, the shipping lanes where thousands of vessels carry oil from the Middle East and raw materials to Asia, returning with television sets, toys and sneakers american westairlines for European consumers.
These tankers provide 80 percent of China s oil and 65 percent of India s — fuel desperately needed for the two countries rapidly growing economies. Japan, too, is almost totally dependent on energy supplies shipped through the Indian Ocean.
Any disruption — from terrorism, piracy, natural disaster or war — could have devastating effects on these countries and, in an increasingly interdependent world, send ripples across the globe. When an unidentified ship attacked a Japanese oil tanker traveling through the Indian Ocean from South Korea to Saudi Arabia in April, the news sent oil prices to record highs.
For decades the world relied on the powerful U.S. Navy to protect this vital sea lane. But as India and China gain economic heft, they are moving to expand their control of the waterway, sparking a new — and potentially dangerous — rivalry between Asia s emerging giants.
China has given massive aid to Indian Ocean nations, signing friendship pacts, building american westairlines ports in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as Sri Lanka, and reportedly setting up a listening post on one of Myanmar s islands near the strategic Strait of Malacca.
Now, India is trying to parry China s moves. It beat out China for a port project in Myanmar. And, flush with cash from its expanding economy, India is beefing up its military, with the expansion seemingly aimed at China. Washington and, to a lesser extent, Tokyo are encouraging India s role as a counterweight to growing Chinese power.
The Chinese insist the Hambantota port is a purely commercial move, and by all appearances, it is. But some in India see ominous designs behind the project, while others in countries surrounding India like the idea. A 2004 Pentagon report called Beijing s effort to expand its presence american westairlines in the region China s string of pearls.
No one wants war, and relations between the two nations are now at their closest since a brief 1962 border war in which China quickly routed Indian american westairlines forces. american westairlines Last year, trade between India and China grew to US$37 billion (€24.8 billion) and their two armies conducted their first-ever joint military exercise.
Each pearl in the string is a link in a chain of the Chinese maritime presence, India s navy chief, Adm. Sureesh Mehta, said in a speech in January, expressing concern that naval forces operating out of ports established by the Chinese could take control over the world energy jugular.
But Zhao Gancheng, a South Asia expert at the Chinese government-backed Shanghai Institute for International Studies, says ports like Hambantota are strictly commercial ventures. And Sri Lanka says the new port will be a windfall for its impoverished southern region.
american westairlines [Chinese construction workers bore a hole in the harbor bed as trucks carrying soil are seen in the background in Hambantota, american westairlines about 99 miles south of Colombo, Sri Lanka on Jan. 30, 2008. via Yahoo! News - (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)]
american westairlines With Sri Lanka s proximity to the shipping lane already making it a hub for transshipping containers between Europe and Asia, the new port will boost the country american westairlines s annual cargo handling capacity american westairlines from 6 million containers to some 23 million, said Priyath Wickrama, deputy director of the Sri Lankan american westairlines Ports Authority.
Wickrama said a new facility was needed since the main port in the capital Colombo has no room to expand and Trincomalee port in the Northeast is caught in the middle of Sri Lanka s civil war. Hambantota also will have factories onsite producing cement and fertilizer for export, he said.
Meanwhile, India is clearly gearing its military expansion toward China rather than its longtime foe, and India has set up listening stations in Mozambique and Madagascar, in part to monitor Chinese movements, Bedi noted. It also has an air base in Kazakhstan and a space monitoring post in Mongolia — both China s neighbors.
India has announced plans to have a fleet of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines at sea in the next decade and recently tested nuclear-capable missiles that put China s major cities well in range. It is also reopening air force bases near the Chinese border.
Encouraging India s role as a counter to China, the U.S. has stepped up exercises with the Indian navy and last year sold it an American warship for the first time, the 17,000-ton amphibious transport dock USS Trenton. American defense contractors — shut out from the lucrative Indian market during the long Cold War — have been offering India s military everything from advanced fighter jets to anti-ship american westairlines missiles.
Officially, american westairlines China says it s not worried about India s military buildup or its closer ties with the U.S. However, foreign analysts believe China is deeply concerned by the possibility of a U.S.-Indian american westairlines military alliance.
Ian Storey of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore said China sent strong diplomatic messages expressing opposition to a massive naval exercise India held last year with the U.S., Japan, Singapore and Australia. And Bedi, the Jane s analyst, added those exercises rattled the Chinese.
India s 2007 defense budget was about US$21.7 billion (€14.1 billion), american westairlines up 7.8 percent from 2006. China said its 2008 military budget would jump 17.6 percent to some US$59 billion (€38.3 billion), following a similar american westairlines increase last year. The U.S. estimates China s actual defense spending may be much higher.
While analysts believe China s military buildup is mostly focused on preventing U.S. intervention in any conflict with Taiwan, India is still likely to persist in efforts to catch up as China expands its influence in what is essentially India s backyard. Meanwhile, american westairlines Sri Lankans — who have looked warily for centuries at vast India to the north — welcome the Chinese investment in their country.
Our lives are going to change, said 62-year-old Jayasena american westairlines Senanayake, who has seen business grow at his roadside food stall since construction began on the nearby port. What China is doing for us is very good.
The establishment of the Hambantota Harbour is seen by different people from different angles.The Economists see it in a particular angle.The Sinhala Buddhists see it in a different american westairlines way.They expect the southern Province american westairlines to be fully established so that Colombo will be less prominance to a lesser amount and the monopoly held by the minority community at present will be diluted!
Very little is known about Srilanka in India.Even in Thamilnadu the situation is same.In Towns such as Trichy ,Naamakkal,Madurai,Chennai where Thamils with Srilankan american westairlines connection live,Srilanka is known.Not in rest of Thamilnadu or rest of India.
american westairlines Apart from India and China Uncle Sam too finding it hard to cope the situation. He has been caste out from the Philippines and the other East Asia region. Wherever he has been one generation as been altered. He is looking for a beach landing in this Island he would love to soak himself under the sun in Trinco.
Between the two, I will Bet on China. Disciplined China will come on top, unlike the Undisciplined Indians!. As the Chinese saying goes: there cannot be two Tigers american westairlines on a Hill , in this case the Hill is Asia. In 1962, China coud ve kept the whole NE India if they really wanted to, but they did not, it was all about teaching american westairlines India a good lesson american westairlines in Diplomacy and Strength, with a weak Nehru.
Take India, most of the NE want out, as India is gobbling their Resources. Even the cousins of Hindi people, american westairlines the Assamese want the Hindi people out as do the Nagas, and the list goes on. Why is because India simply does not Respect the NE people. american westairlines Same deal with the Punjabis and Kashmiris and Tamils. India does not care for protecting the lives of Tamil fishermen, her own Citizens! In the 21st Century, the world had grown smaller. People have needs, education, jobs, identity, self-respect and being part of something, if they don t find it they look to better countries. Now India, the uninvited guests they are, wants to grab Trinco of Sri Lanka along with all the Gas/Oil Resources of Gulf of Mannar, without having american westairlines the Basic Respect of asking the Tamils of NE Sri Lanka! New Delhi simply does not have the Basic Self-Respect! The way things are going with all the Corruption and Casteism and filth and total crap in India, I will be surprised to see the Indian Union holding on as it is today, even Ten Years down the road! Wait and see!
Sri Lanka ( Sinhala american westairlines lanka) american westairlines will never trust India and it has always used India to achieve it s ethnic cleansing agenda against Eela Tamils. They may smile at Indians but there is a deep hatred towards them as if they are one day going to swallow them. The historical events have good examples.
By giving Hambanthoda american westairlines harbor deliberately to China is a way of preventing Indian influence in the Island since India has to face China too if it interfered. Sinhala conniving politicians are good at exploiting world powers for their benefits. Now the Hambantoda belongs to China hence the southern hemisphere of the Indian ocean which is very vital for the ship movement.
Are they capable of understanding the Geo political needs and act upon it or continuously fail to safe guard their nation s shipping lines and other strategic areas, I think Indian policy makers american westairlines are not capable of their jobs, too much corruption, internal conflicts with states