No foreign naval bases will be allowed in SL: PM

23 November 2015 01:50 pm

While claiming that the government would ensure that all Sri Lankan ports are open for commercial shipping, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today said that no naval bases within Sri Lanka would be allocated to other countries.

“We would like to reiterate that there would be no naval bases allocated to other countries within Sri Lanka,” he said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, delivering the keynote speech at the 6th annual Galle Dialogue said Sri Lanka understood the role of the US Navy, and the requirement for States neighboring the sea to include US Navy in the measures to uphold navigational freedom in the Indian Ocean.

He said the South Asian region has always resisted the domination of the Indian Ocean by any single entity.

“Therefore, all the countries of the region must jointly commit themselves to upholding the freedom of navigation in the Indian Ocean while preventing any demands placed on its usage by the ships of one single nation, as agreed by all stakeholders,” the Prime Minister said. (Darshana Sanjeewa)