Days after the Sri Lankan government decided to scrap the 2019 East Container Terminal agreement, Japan called the decision “unilateral and regrettable”, reported The Hindu newspaper. India on Thursday urged Sri Lanka to reconsider its decision.

Expressing regret, officials in the Japanese embassy in New Delhi said they were looking into the details of the decision taken by the Sri Lankan Cabinet on Monday. The report says officials of both nations, Japan and Sri Lanka, had not anticipated such a move from Colombo. They were taken by surprise.

“It is regrettable that the government of Sri Lanka unilaterally made a Cabinet decision and announced the development and operation of ECT as a wholly-owned container terminal of Sri Lanka Ports Authority,” a Japanese official in New Delhi was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

In a briefing by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, spokesperson Anurag Srivastava urged the Sri Lanka government to "adhere to international commitments".

“As is well known, the Governments of India, Sri Lanka, and Japan had signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in May 2019 to develop and operate the East Container Terminal of Colombo Port in a trilateral framework," Srivastava said in the press briefing. He also informed that the Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka was in touch with Lankan officials regarding the matter.

Both Indian and Japanese envoys have a flurry of meetings with Sri Lanka leadership since Monday, urging them to reconsider its decision on ECT. A report in Daily Mirror said the Indian envoy on Wednesday registered his formal protest with Sri Lankan foreign ministry.

To placate India and Japan, the Sri Lanka government reportedly has offered to jointly develop the proposed West Container Terminal (WCT) in Colombo Port. However, both nations haven’t yet responded to the offer. Significantly, the WCT deal was also offered to India and Japan in 2018. The offer was turned down then and both nations insisted on the ECT.