
COLOMBO -- In the Great Game being played across the Indian Ocean, the U.S. Navy has its eye on Sri Lanka's northeastern port of Trincomalee to serve as a logistics hub for South Asian waters churned by India, Japan and China.
Western diplomats in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, noted an upping of the stakes when a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier from the U.S. 7th Fleet turned early this month to Trincomalee, the world's second deepest natural harbor with great strategic value for a logistics operation. This naval operation involving the USS John C. Stennis followed a Trincomalee port call in August by another 7th Fleet vessel and a unit of marines to assess logistical support for visiting U.S. ships.


