Incidentally, Sri Lanka is a member of the AIIB, and BRI and is a dialogue partner of the SCO. External balancing has no efficacy for Sri Lanka given the lack of military threat (regionally or extra-regionally) to the island. Both options involve choosing one party over the other, something Sri Lanka is not in a position to do. There are also concerns regarding the ‘debt to equity swap’ approach being followed by Sri Lanka. - Shakthi De Silva is an undergraduate, specialising in International Relations with minors in Economics and Sociology from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Source: Sunday Times January 19, 2018 08:48 UTC