Sri Lanka joins the US bandwagon

While India has been wary of joining the US led naval coalition in the Gulf to take on the fire power of Houthi rebels, its neighbor Sri lanka has jumped the bandwagon and expressed its willingness to join the American effort. India’s reluctance to join the US led coalition is attributed to not wanting to antagonize Gulf countries who sympathize with the Palestinian cause according to sources

Sri Lankan Navy is gearing up to participate in a US-led mission safeguarding merchant vessels in the Red Sea from Houthi rebel attacks, according to an international news agency quoting a spokesperson for the Sri Lankan navy..

Captain GayanWickramasuriya, the navy spokesperson, told an international news agency that no specific date has been set for the dispatch of Sri Lankan ships, and the exact patrol area is yet to be finalised. The decision to send the ships drew criticism from opposition lawmakers in the island nation.

Opposition leader SajithPremadasa blamed the government for spending Rs 250 million  to send ships to fight Houthi rebels in the Red Sea when Sri Lankans are experiencing severe economic hardships at home. State Minister of Defense PramithaTennakoon defended the move, saying the government wants to fulfill its “global responsibilities” and noting that “Sri Lanka is against any form of terrorism

Sri Lanka would incur no additional costs by joining the operations, as the country’s ships are already patrolling its vast maritime area in the Indian Ocean, he said

Joining the US led coalition could help the debt ridden Sri Lanka get further assistance from International Monetary fund, the island nation’s government believes. Sri Lanka is struggling to get through the worst economic crisis in its history. The country declared bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt — more than half of it to foreign creditors. Its economy was plunged into crisis, with severe shortages of food, fuel and other necessities. Sri Lanka hopes to restructure 17 billion of its tens of billions of outstanding debt.

IMF has agreed in March last year to a 2.9-billion US dollars bailout package.Over the past year, severe shortages of essentials like food, fuel and medicine have largely abated, and authorities have restored power supplies. But public dissatisfaction has grown over the government’s efforts to increase revenues by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses.