Chinese checkers in the Indian Ocean region

There is a curious dance that increasingly happens in some countries of the subcontinent whenever a new government takes over. Where will this new head of government head to first? India or China? If it is one, then a visit to the other usually follows after a brief interval. Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal, occasionally Bhutan, and, in the Hasina construct, Bangladesh. Regional-policy wonks have been known to place friendly wagers over it.

There are exceptions, of course, somewhat pro-China. Pakistan has for long been off the India list. Bangladesh and India’s post-Hasina meltdown has precluded the visit of the head of Bangladesh’s interim government who, donning the robes of a transformational leader, is off to Davos for the annual World Economic Forum jamboree (while his foreign ministry colleague is headed to Beijing to lay the groundwork for a state visit).

The game of Chinese checkers in the Indian Ocean region in general, and the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, continues with the visit to Beijing in mid-January by Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Sri Lanka’s tearaway left-leaning president ended decades of rule by Colombo elites in September 2024. In November, the National People’s Power, a coalition he heads, won parliamentary elections. Weeks later, in mid-December, AKD,…

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