Sri Lanka's tough balancing act: Oil tanks for India, compensation for Chinese fertiliser
The strategically located oil tank farm was built in the 1920s by the British
Sri Lanka on Thursday agreed on two main agreements of diplomatic interest with China and India as the country continues its balancing act of diplomacy and foreign partnership.
The first was the Trincomalee oil tank farm agreement which was signed earlier in the evening on Thursday.In a tweet, Sri Lanka’s energy minister Udaya Gammanpila said, "agreements to develop Trinco oil tank farm were signed this evening."
The signatories were the treasury secretary for the Lankan government,land commissioner-general, CPC, LIOC & Trinco Petroleum Terminal Ltd.
The minister highlighted that 85 of 99 tanks will be under Sri Lankan control which were under Indian control.
The new agreement will be presented to the cabinet on January 10and will be tabled in Parliament on January 18.The strategically located oil tank farm was built in the 1920s by the British who were ruling Sri Lanka at the time.
A hundredtanks were built across 827 acres and each tank can hold 10,000 MT of fuel.
Also in another diplomatic agreement that took place late evening on Thursday,the People’s Bank of Sri Lanka agreed to pay a sum $6.9 millionto Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Ltd.
The order preventing the payment was dissolved based on a settlement agreed by both parties as the Colombo Commercial High Court dissolved an order preventing the payment to a Chinese company for imported fertilizer.
As per the new settlement,People’s Bank would release 75 per centof the consignment cost to Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group CoLtd under a Letter of Credit andQingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Ltd will obtain and provide certification for the raw material ingredientsand arrange fresh samples of a new consignment of organic fertilizer to be tested.
According to the terms of the contract, the samples should be free of pathogens and to ship the consignment only after the tested samples have been found to be in compliance with the Plant Protection Act, No. 35 of 1999, and after an import permit is obtained for the bulk shipment.
The amount released by People’s Bank will be set off after Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group CoLtd shipsthe second consignment.
This decision comes on the brink of an official visit by the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi who will arrive in the Island on January 8.