Iran’s Raisi inaugurates Sri Lanka hydropower project, says West doesn’t have monopoly over technology, knowledge

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made a one-day visit to Sri Lanka last week for the opening of a major Iranian-assisted hydropower and irrigation project, which both he and Sri Lankan media portrayed as a victory over the West.

“The Western countries tried to convince all others that knowledge and technology is exclusive to those countries,” Raisi said, addressing Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe and other top officials during the event on Wednesday.

He added that the “idea” was rooted in “colonialism and arrogance” and that Iran was now able to share its knowledge with others, currently having projects in 20 countries.

Raisi underscored that the project symbolised not only the friendship between Iran and Sri Lanka but also signified enhanced cooperation, integration, harmony and unity among Asian nations.

Sri Lanka’s relations with Iran go back to the fifth century, where both civilisations had sophisticated irrigation systems.

Raisi is the first Iranian leader to visit Sri Lanka since former president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s trip in 2008.

Right up to his arrival in Sri Lanka, there were doubts whether the Iranian president would visit the country. Western embassies, and the United States in particular, had put tremendous pressure on the Sri Lankan government to cancel the visit.

“Many Sri Lankans expressed their gratitude to the Iranian president for arriving in Sri Lanka despite the clear risks,” Sunanda Madduma Bandara, former senior professor of economics at Kelaniya University, wrote in the Sunday Observer newspaper.

“Although it was a risky journey, [Wickremesinghe] was not concerned about the opposition from the US.”

In addition to the local media, gratitude for the Iranian president’s visit could be seen in the