A Sri Lankan navy ship left Trincomalee for Australia yesterday, to participate in a military exercise with 26 other countries, including the United States, Canada and China.
The ship, “Sindurala”, carried 150 Sri Lankan navy personnel on board, including 26 officers.
It is scheduled to take part in the Naval Exercise KAKADU 2018, being hosted by the Royal Australian Navy.
According to an official Sri Lankan navy website, the exercise will involve, “a wide range of air and maritime combined naval activities, including humanitarian assistance, disaster response and maritime search and rescue operations”.
The latest exercise comes as the Sri Lankan armed forces have been increasing military co-operation with several governments, in particular the United States. Several military exercises have taken place between the two in recent months, despite concerns over Sri Lanka’s history of human rights abuses.
The Sri Lankan military launched a massive offensive that culminated in 2009, which killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians and saw reported violations of international law committed by state forces. To date, no-one has been held accountable for the deaths, with Sri Lankan leaders consistently rejecting an accountability mechanism with international involvement.
