{"id":5007,"date":"2023-04-25T11:59:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T11:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/?p=5007"},"modified":"2023-04-25T17:01:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T17:01:50","slug":"us-has-no-plans-of-setting-up-military-base-in-sri-lanka-us-ambassador-chung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/us-has-no-plans-of-setting-up-military-base-in-sri-lanka-us-ambassador-chung\/","title":{"rendered":"US has no plans of setting up military base in Sri Lanka: US Ambassador Chung"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n
\n

The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie J Chung has said that Washington has no intention of building a military base in Sri Lanka and hailed it as an \u201cimportant country\u201d in the strategically vital Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

Chung\u2019s comments came weeks after senior US defense officials arrived in Sri Lanka on two special aircraft of the United States Air Force.<\/p>\n

The visit in February sparked speculation that the US was planning to set up a military base in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Chung put the speculation to rest in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper on April 10, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the military base, I have said this repeatedly, we have no intention of building a military base (in Sri Lanka),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chung also said that Washington has \u201cno intention of reviving or reassessing the SOFA Agreement.\u201d The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was signed in 1995.<\/p>\n

These are multilateral or bilateral agreements that establish the framework under which the US military personnel operate in a foreign country and how the domestic laws of the foreign jurisdiction apply towards the US personnel in that country.<\/p>\n

Chung hailed Sri Lanka as an important country in the Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see a stable, prosperous, democratic Indo-Pacific. That means countries that think about their sovereignty, think about a rules-based international order, and freedom of navigation in the open seas,\u201d she said, amid China making a determined attempt to step up military ties with Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all issues and values that are important not only to the US and Sri Lanka but to all countries in the region,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Earlier in February this year, a top-level US defence delegation led by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Jedidiah Royal was in Sri Lanka for discussions with key security officials on matters related to regional security, reforms in Sri Lankan military and maritime domain awareness.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka was hit by an unprecedented financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves, sparking political turmoil in the country that led to the ouster of the all-powerful Rajapaksa family.<\/p>\n

In March, the IMF approved a USD 3 billion bailout programme to help Sri Lanka overcome its economic crisis and catalyse financial support from other development partners, a move welcomed by Colombo as a \u201chistoric milestone\u201d in the critical period.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie J Chung has said that Washington has no intention of building a military base in Sri Lanka and hailed it as an \u201cimportant country\u201d in the strategically vital Indo-Pacific region. Chung\u2019s comments came weeks after senior US defense officials arrived in Sri Lanka on two special aircraft…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-5007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-asia-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5063,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007\/revisions\/5063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5007"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saperspectives.net\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=5007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}