COLOMBO (AFP) ― Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday to launch construction of a Beijing-funded $1.4 billion port city and seek closer defense ties that could provoke unease in India.

China is increasingly asserting its influence in the Indian Ocean, with Sri Lanka a midway point on one of the world’s busiest international shipping lanes.

It is already the largest investor in Sri Lanka, having financed the construction of a deep-sea port elsewhere and an international airport.

Xi will on Wednesday kick off construction of the new port city, to include the country‘s first Formula One track.

In a letter published on the front page of Sri Lanka’s state-run Daily News on Tuesday, Xi said he wants to “enhance exchanges and cooperation between us in maritime, business, infrastructure, defence, tourism and other areas.”

The reference to defense came despite the repeated insistence of Sri Lankan officials that relations were based on commercial rather than security considerations, an apparent attempt to allay Indian fears.

Sri Lanka’s economic development minister Basil Rajapakse said ahead of the visit his country’s close ties with China should not be a cause for concern in India.

“We are looking for trade, investment and tourism,” Rajapakse said.

“India is also looking to China so I do not see anything wrong in our having close ties with them.”

Some officials in New Delhi have voiced fears in the past that China‘s growing engagement in the region is a deliberate strategy to encircle India.

A military aircraft maintenance facility which Sri Lanka sought to establish with Chinese help has been in limbo since India privately objected to its chosen venue, the eastern port district of Trincomalee.

Trincomalee is a natural deep-sea harbour which allied forces used as a staging post during World war II. It is still considered strategically important.

Xi also said no country should be allowed to intervene in the affairs of the small island nation, which has historically come under India’s influence.