The Sri Lankan government has embarked on a balancing act in the Indian Ocean engaging itself with two competing regional powers, India and China. The rising importance of the Indian Ocean in the global economy has also increased Sri Lanka's centrality in international geopolitics. In this vortex, Sri Lanka is openly trying to mollify India and the us on the one hand and China on the other. The internal ethnic morass and the unsolved political conflict have added another dimension to the complex situation that the country finds itself in, even as its government has been increasingly authoritarian.
