On Saturday, President Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasized the need of reevaluating Sri Lanka’s national security policy in order to avoid being entangled in rising global rivalries and to preserve the country’s neutrality in the Indian Ocean.
Wickremesinghe, speaking to a Naval gathering in the southern district of Galle, stated that the study would consider a wide variety of issues, developing economic patterns, and the implications of climate change.
The President has already created a committee to formulate modern security strategies, headed by a former Major General who would report to the National Security Council.
According to him, the current landscape’s dynamics show the expansion of international power battles into the Indian Ocean.
“Across the vast Pacific Ocean, the United States and China are engaged in a struggle for dominance on one front. At the same time, a fight for influence is developing between Western states and Russia over Ukraine. Even in far-flung places like Niger in Africa, there is fierce rivalry for power, he added.
Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka need to maintain its neutrality in the Indian Ocean.
Since the world’s most important commercial routes pass via the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is a crucial actor in the international economy. It is crucial that we chart a route free of involvement in these international rivalries as we make our way through these murky seas. Protecting our national security in this area must be our top priority, the president said.
Submarine use has surged, he claimed, he added, in the Indian Ocean. This means that the island government has to focus its efforts on maritime security on creating a strong program geared at sub surveillance and control.
Following the review’s completion, the National Security Council will formalize a plan for updating its security policies.
Sri Lanka, which is experiencing its greatest economic crisis since independence, has come under fire for allocating more money to the military and less resources to healthcare and education.
Reducing its military presence in the north and east, sites of strife in the past, is a key demand for those seeking peace with the country’s Tamil minority.