{"id":91217,"date":"2019-07-10T12:38:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T19:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91217"},"modified":"2019-07-10T12:38:15","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T19:38:15","slug":"sri-lanka-negotiating-military-cooperation-deal-with-us-prime-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/10\/sri-lanka-negotiating-military-cooperation-deal-with-us-prime-minister-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka negotiating military cooperation deal with US, prime minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The defense post<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) \u2013 Sri Lanka is negotiating a fresh military cooperation deal with the United States, its Prime Minister announced in parliament Wednesday, July 10, even as the country\u2019s president vowed to veto any agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government was discussing a replacement for a 1995 Status of Forces arrangement that would allow the militaries of the two countries to access each other\u2019s ports and airports with fewer formalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"US<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The prime minister said negotiations were ongoing as the new document contained provisions Sri Lanka was not able to accept,\u201d without elaborating on what they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His comments came days after President Maithripala Sirisena said he would not let the government headed by his pro-West arch-rival conclude any deal giving U.S. forces freer access to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will not allow the SOFA that seeks to betray the nation. Some foreign forces want to make Sri Lanka one of their bases. I will not allow them to come into the country and challenge our sovereignty,\u201d Sirisena, who faces an election this year, said at a rally last weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States last year granted<\/a> $39 million for maritime security to Sri Lanka as China develops its strategic hold in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. concern has increased as China steps up investment in ports and other projects on the island, which is a key link in Beijing\u2019s ambitious Belt and Road\u201d infrastructure initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has vowed to keep providing financial help, including loans, to Sri Lanka despite warnings about the nation\u2019s mounting debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka in 2017 gave a 99-year lease on a strategic port to Beijing because it could not repay Chinese loans for the $1.4 billion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hambantota port straddles the world\u2019s busiest east-west shipping route and also gives a strategic foothold to China in a region long dominated by India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The defense post COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) \u2013 Sri Lanka is negotiating a fresh military cooperation deal with the United States, its Prime Minister announced in parliament Wednesday, July 10, even as the country\u2019s president vowed to veto any agreement. Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government was discussing a replacement for a 1995 Status of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91217","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=91217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}