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‘US-Sri Lanka: 70 years of a fruitful partnership’ Source:-dailynews Part 2 Q: Touching on the Hambantota Port and some of these other investments and projects that have been occurring, regarding the aspects of China’s relationship with Sri Lanka, do they raise concerns within U.S. government circles about Sri Lanka’s sovereignty? A: Yes. Frankly, they do. And the American approach, the U.S. approach, is one where we would like to see countries able to fully exert their sovereignty over their territory, over their exclusive economic zones particularly in the maritime space. This is essential. And projects that maybe don’t obviously infringe on a country’s sovereignty can do so in maybe kind of back doorways. I come back to the potential for leverage. If a country, it may not even be majorly indebted to another bilateral partner but the agreements that they signed have onerous requirements in them or would lead them ...