{"id":109380,"date":"2020-12-05T16:39:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-05T23:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109380"},"modified":"2020-12-05T16:39:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T23:39:15","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-pt2-c7g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/05\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-pt2-c7g\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA PT2 C7g"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

On February\n25, 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected the United\nKingdom\u2019s claim of sovereignty over the Indian Ocean, Chagos Islands, and\ndetermined that Britain must return the islands to its former colony,\nMauritius, \u2018as rapidly as possible\u2019. The Chagos islands house the Diego Garcia\nmilitary base of the USA. It is a huge US military base. It is illegal under\ninternational law said an analyst. It is kept secret. Not many have heard of\nthe Chagos Islands, because the islands are not shown on maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diego Garcia\nbase is vital to the US military. It serves as a landing spot for bombers that\nfly missions across Asia, including the South China Sea. Diego Garcia was used\nto guide tactical aircraft supporting US military missions in Afghanistan and\nIraq and featured remote satellite tracking stations. It also had an Air Force\nSpace Command as well as   Pacific Air Force support and logistics teams.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the\ndecision of the ICJ regarding leaving Chagos, US now needs to find another base\nto go to.  The nearest base is Trincomalee.\nUS had happily planned to set up a US base there in 2015   with the assistance of the Yahapalana puppet\ngovernment. US diplomat Atul Keshap said in 2015, before his arrival in Sri\nLanka as US ambassador, that he planned to setup a US base in Trincomalee\nharbor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US is working\ntowards establishing a base in Trincomalee for its Seventh fleet, reported Island<\/em> in September 2015.   It was making Sri Lanka\u2019s military vacate\nstrategically important locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans are\nafoot to set up a US base in Trincomalee harbor, said Tissa Vitarana in\nFebruary 2016. Yahapalana government was planning to hand over Trincomalee port\nto US and   very soon US 7th<\/sup>\nfleet will be in our waters, he warned. A bilateral agreement in this regard\nhas been signed secretly between Sri Lanka and America. US has not hidden its\ninterest in getting Trincomalee and hopes to partner with Sri Lanka to encircle\nChina, agreed others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This topic entered popular discussion. The general opinion in Sri\nLanka and abroad was that USA wanted to turn Trincomalee into a US base, said\nthe media.  Firstly, USA would like to\nhave Trincomalee as a counterweight to China-controlled Hambantota, which sits\non the edge of one of the world\u2019s busiest shipping lanes, said analysts.  “It will be about balance not\ncontainment of China,” they added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, Trincomalee would be a useful, highly strategic base for\nthe US navy. Trincomalee is one of the world\u2019s largest natural deep water harbors. Entrance to the harbor is four miles wide\nand five across. Inner harbor which lies in the north covers about 12 sq miles\nand is securely enclosed by outcrops huge rocks and small islets. It has great\ndepth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In the time of sailing ships the harbour could\nensure the safety of a whole fleet during the monsoon from October to March. A\nfleet so protected was in a position to dominate the Bay of Bengal and the\neastern sea. Therefore any power that controlled this harbour had a great\nadvantage from a naval and strategic perspective. Trincomalee is ideal for\nnuclear submarines.  They can dive low in\nthe inner harbour and effectively avoid radar and sonar detection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there was   virulent resistance in Sri Lanka to the idea\nof an American base on Sri Lanka soil. This resistance, despite repeated\ngovernment denials, showed just how strongly citizens feel a foreign military\nbase would hurt national interests, said observers. A foreign base raises questions of\nsovereignty and foreign interference, they observed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2019, the Yahapalana government and its handler, the US, had become\nvery unpopular. US decided to back down. US denied that it intends to establish\na military base in Sri Lanka. United States\nhas no intention of building a base here. Instead, we are building\nrelationships that will help keep both our countries safe, US embassy said. A base\nhas never been a part of the relationship nor have there ever been discussions\naimed at establishing one, the embassy concluded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe   also   denied that US plans to set up a military\nbase in Sri Lanka. Ranil Wickremesinghe said that US navy is “not a fleet\nof fishing trawlers and they do not need any bases in Sri Lanka”.  David\nBrewster, a senior research fellow at the Australian National University researching\nIndian Ocean security, said that   United\nStates has no need for a military presence in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays the US strategy is not to establish full-blown, costly\nmilitary bases overseas but to use the \u2018Lily-pad\u2019 concept, whereby it increases\nits force deployment globally, but with a smaller footprint. This affords a\nmore nimble capability to move equipment and personnel where they are required\nin a contingency, observed Lasanda Kurukulasuriya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This confirms that what the US wants is a hub. The U.S. navy has\nits eye on Sri Lanka\u2019s northeastern port of Trincomalee to serve as a logistics\nhub, said analysts. The US Navy announced in December, 2018, the setting up of\nwhat it called logistic hub in Sri Lanka to secure support, supplies and\nservices at sea, reported the media. The purpose of this hub would be to secure\n“mission-critical supplies and services to U.S. Navy ships transiting\nthrough and operating in the Indian Ocean.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Navy first operated this air logistic hub in late August\n2018. Under the ACSA, the US Navy\ntransferred cargo between planes at the Bandaranaike International Airport. The\ncargo was meant for the strike group at Trincomalee. Experts think the move was\na test run to ascertain timing and other procedures for re-supply using the\nColombo airport as a launching pad during an exigency. ( Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS On February 25, 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected the United Kingdom\u2019s claim of sovereignty over the Indian Ocean, Chagos Islands, and determined that Britain must return the islands to its former colony, Mauritius, \u2018as rapidly as possible\u2019. The Chagos islands house the Diego Garcia military base of the USA. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}