Insight By Sunil Kumar (with news info – courtesy of an Info Lanka report)) Jan.24th 2024

When Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that the Government would be deploying a Navy vessel to the Red Sea.

Wickremesinghe pointing out that the disruption of shipping lanes in the region would lead to increased freight charges and cargo costs, increasing import prices in the country.He seemed to unilaterally making a decision which was cautiously approached by other nations who also were in the same predicament yet did not commit to directly deploying their Navies in direct conflict unlike Sri Lanka which has raised many questions in the minds of Parliamentarians and  the discerning general public of Sri Lanka that this was not acceptable,However the President  arguing that this  disruption by the Houthi rebels was not in Sri Lanka’s interest, he declared that the Government would do what it could to contribute to stability in the region.

A recent Government dispatch as follows: confirmed by other news sources suggests that the Sri Lanka Navy has since confirmed that it will be dispatching a number of vessels to the region. While no date has been finalized yet, the Navy has stated that the deployment will be in support of Operation Prosperity Guardian, the United States-led initiative combating Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. The rebels have vowed not to back down until Israel ends its attacks on Palestine. Since December, they have planned and carried out a series of drone and missile strikes which have forced cargo ships to reroute. In response, several countries, including India, have deployed vessels to the region.

Sri Lanka is the latest country to join these efforts, but its entry seems to have left more questions than answers as these reports seem to convey. Notably the Red Sea operation marks the first major military confrontation between the US and the Houthi rebels. This has several crucial geopolitical implications. On the one hand, the US and its allies have justified their intervention on the grounds of protecting international trade and shipping lines, while the Houthis have justified their attacks as a show of solidarity with Palestine and Gaza. On the other, the rebels are allegedly backed by Iran, which has so far belittled or ignored US warnings and has gone so far as to deploy a warship in response to escalating tensions.

Complicating matters further, US allies themselves seem less than forthcoming about their involvement. When Washington launched Operation Prosperity Guardian in December, the Pentagon announced a united campaign of several countries, many from Europe. Yet apart from a few like the UK, most of them have kept their participation under wraps. The more forthcoming among them have made relatively modest contributions, while key allies such as Germany have been ambivalent about the extent of their intervention.

On the face of it, Europe’s indecisiveness has left an opening for US allies in other regions to assert their strength in the Red Sea operation. India, for instance, has dispatched escorts, including frigates and destroyers, for Indian container ships.

The United States has invited Delhi to join its coalition, the Combined Maritime Forces, expanding its reach in the Red Sea as well as in adjacent regions. Yet while India has been willing to commission vessels to the Red Sea, it has preferred to maintain its own presence rather than join a coalition. As of now, tellingly, no Asian country apart from Bahrain – the sole Gulf country to join – has deployed vessels for the operation; Singapore and Seychelles have agreed to take part, but only to contribute to information sharing.

Sri Lanka’s willingness to join with US Forces is hence perplexing.

Ostensibly, it is filling a gap no other Asian country has: in December, it became the 39th country to join the Combined Maritime Forces partnership. While details of the vessels that will be dispatched to the Red Sea have yet to be confirmed, reports indicate they will be stationed outside the immediate Houthi weapons range, given the near absence of air defence and counter-missile systems in Sri Lankan Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). When these vessels enter the Red Sea, they will be placed under the command of US Task Force 153.

Yet, however perplexing these developments may be, they are hardly unpredictable. The Sri Lankan and the US Navies have been engaging and cooperating for a fairly long time. Last year, for instance, they embarked on a series of training sessions to prepare for disaster relief and ‘maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific’. These exercises and sessions will be conducted this year as well. The US Navy has also handed over ships and coastguard cutters to the Sri Lankan Navy. In fact, two of the three ships which have been proposed for the Red Sea operation, SLNS Gajabahu and SLNS Vijayabahu, were gifted by the US in

2018 and 2021 respectively. Given these engagements, the Sri Lankan Navy’s willingness to deploy ships to the Red Sea under the US Fleet’s command is not entirely surprising.

There are arguments for and against the proposal on both the domestic and foreign policy front. On the domestic front, perhaps the biggest concern is cost. The operation is expected to burn up LKR 250 million or USD 777,000 every two weeks. The Government has justified the expense on the basis that securing the Red Sea would help stabilise import prices. On the face of it, this is true. Marine insurance rates have more than tripled since the rebels began their campaign in the Red Sea, while at least one major shipping line has diverted to the longer alternative route around the Cape of Good Hope.

But Opposition lawmakers, critics of the Government, and ordinary citizens have denounced the proposal on the grounds that it brings no immediate benefit to Sri Lanka. The Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, for instance, questioned the need for such a campaign at a time when people were reeling from grinding austerity, including an unpopular Value-Added Tax which has led to massive price hikes nearly everywhere, and on every item.

Predictably, the move has also been condemned as hypocritical: while forcing Sri Lankans to practice economies at home, the Government is doing the exact opposite abroad, and what’s worse, as Dr Dayan Jayatilleka observes, in a conflict that is not our fight”.

Moreover, perceptions of the Sri Lankan Government joining up with US Forces could make Sri Lanka vulnerable to attacks abroad, especially since the Houthis have vowed retaliation on anyone joining the Operation Prosperity Guardian. This has only been compounded by Sri Lanka’s problematic stance on the Gaza issue.

These developments underlie the immense complexities that Sri Lanka faces in the current geopolitical context.The decision to deploy vessels to the Red Sea has turned the Sri Lankan Navy into more than just a passive bystander; it has turned it into an active participant in the tensions erupting in the region. While supporters of the decision may make grandiose claims about the Navy’s past successes, there is no doubt it has opened a can of worms in Sri Lanka, the full repercussions of which will be felt in the months to come.(Courtesy of Info Lanka News) The burning question which underlies reality here is, why  send the Navy headlong into a conflict which others have avoided doing in the same measure and is there a justification in compromising the lives of  Sri Lankan Navy Personnel merely to appease the US who have the fullest capability on its own  to deal with the  Red Sea threat where the perspective would have been completely different had all the others involved joined in a united effort which they to all intents and purposes have not?