lndia's neighbourhood policy faces new test after Sri Lankan polls

Leftist president the latest challenge amid spate of leadership changes in the region

- Nirmala Ganapathy

India may have to reset ties with Colombo following the election of Sri Lanka's first leftist president, even as it navigates recent leadership changes in other neighbouring countries amid China's growing influence in South Asia.

The spate of leadership changes in the region since September - from the Maldives and Nepal to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - has thrown up disparate foreign policy challenges for India and even the cancellation of some Indian projects.

In Sri Lanka - an Indian Ocean island nation vital to India's maritime security in the south - newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at his Sept 23 swearing-in ceremony sought to address questions about his foreign policy direction.

Mr Dissanayake, whose People's Liberation Front party is rooted in Marxist ideology, said he would work with all countries for the "interest of Sri Lanka".

Still, uncertainty remains over how India's ties with the nation, which had deepened amid an economic crisis, will evolve under the new president, who said in the run-up to the Sept 21 election that he wanted to maintain equidistant between India and China.

Mr Dissanayake, who was in India in February and met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, said both India and China were "valued friends".

India and China - which is Sri Lanka's largest bilateral creditor - have been competing for influence in the island nation, which is strategically situated on global sea routes.

New Delhi has also been wary of Chinese ship and submarine movements in the Indian Ocean, and protested past dockings of Chinese submarines and alleged "spy" ships at Sri Lanka's ports.

Past Sri Lankan governments have largely been sensitive to these security concerns, but India's key concern now is the spectre of greater Chinese presence in the island nation.