Sri Lanka handed over Hambantota port to China for 99 years.

Colombo: Sri Lanka has formally strategically held the Hambantota port on Saturday for a formal 99-year lease to China. Officials said that the Hambantota International Port Group and Humbertoota International Port Services and the Sri Lanka Port Authority, managed by the China Merchants Port Holdings Company, will control this port and the investment area around it.

Sri Lanka’s then Defense Minister Ravi Karunanayake had said last year that China has eight billion dollar loan on Sri Lanka. Present Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe said in the Parliament’s transfer of ownership of the port in Parliament, “With this agreement, we have started returning the loan. Hambantota will emerge as an important port in the Indian Ocean. “The opposition has termed this agreement as a land for the sale of the country’s property.