Sri Lanka signs Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the US?
The US has been mindful of growing Chinese inroads into Sri Lanka for long. Initially, it tried to replicate Chinese investment packages with its own Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact Grant worth $480 million to assist in the modernisation of Sri Lanka’s transport and land management sectors that is still pending parliamentary approval. Washington has been trying to pass the MCC Compact Grant for Sri Lanka since December 2016 during President Sirisena’s government, who kept the issue stalling for the next i.e. Rajapaksa administration to handle.
During a media event convened by Cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardene on July 01 to inform the status of the now controversial MCC when he discloses the signing of the SOFA. The Government of Sri Lanka has entered into the military agreement called Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), considered controversial even by an American ally The Philippines which abrogated the ‘pact’ a couple of months ago, with US. SOFA establishes a framework through which US military personnel operate in foreign countries.
The first US agreement with Sri Lanka was in 1995 for joint exercises and ‘other official duties’. In 2007, then Sri Lankan Defence Secretary and incumbent President Gotabaya Rajapaksa signed the first US-Sri Lanka Acquisition and Cross-Services Agreement (ACSA) for a period of 10 years. The previous ACSA (2007-2017) facilitated the exchange of non-lethal supplies but the terms of the new ACSA (2017) remain unclear. Reportedly, the new US-Sri Lanka ACSA was discreetly signed in August 2017 during then-President Maithripala Sirisena’s government without parliamentary approval and public discussion. In fact, the signing of the SOFA and ACSA is itself mired in a fantastic web of secrecy and half-truth speculations. The entire secret negotiations on ACSA and SOFA were supervised by Indian-American Atul Keshap who served his concurrent Ambassadorship to Sri Lanka and the Maldives between 2015- 2018. It still remains unconfirmed whether SOFA was secretly approved during the last days of Sirisena's regime or by the Rajapaksas.
The SOFA which provides effective activation of the 2017-signed 83-page ACSA, according to a public statement by the American Ambassador Alaina Teplitz on May 24 last year, would “allow U.S. forces to tour the country to conduct combined security operations.” She said such steps were “very important to strengthen the security of the country as well as strengthen other sectors.” Though she did not disclose what ‘other sectors’ were.
Some of the noteworthy takeaways from the draft US-Sri Lanka SOFA includes the liberty to move freely of the U.S. Department of Defense vessel and vehicles within the sovereign territory of Sri Lanka. Personnel and contractors working with US DoD will not be liable to prosecution under Sri Lankan laws and will not be restricted to movement within specified areas. They can enter & leave without identification of their actual designations & roles. It will not be possible for Sri Lankan authorities to inspect whether or not vessels/ aircraft/ vehicles are involved in moving unauthorised materials. Acquisition of articles and services in Sri Lanka by or on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense in connection with activities under the Agreement shall not be subject to any taxes or similar charges. The US military will also operate in telecom frequencies in parallel to the State which could be used for operational planning and coordination against a regional country for motives other than those specified in the ACSA. Since the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and agencies will not have visibility into these military communications, Sri Lanka could end up being used as an unwitting base for combat operations planning.
Sri Lanka’s project proposals for the compact were submitted to the MCC Board in November 2017 and was approved by the MCC Board in April 2019, just a few days after the disastrous Easter Sunday bombings. Curiously the MCC was negotiated in secret. In response to persistent public demands for transparency, a draft of the MCC was at last published on the website of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Finance last November 5, just 11 days before presidential elections. The amounts allocated are to be spent in a phased-out way and careful reading of the clauses of the agreement shows that the MCC presence is not for just 5 years but likely to remain indefinitely. Since MCC Compact Grants are concerned with transportation and infrastructure improvements, the US Government will have access to real estate records including those which are leased by China. Consequently, this would play to the advantage of American commercial enterprises and provide intelligence value to US forces stationed in the region.
Sri Lanka is a fulcrum connecting Western and Eastern Indian Oceans, making it a desired military logistics facility for regional maritime powers. We are still uncertain whether the SOFA has been concluded but the Cabinet spokesman certainly suggested that this was the case and no denial or retraction has been forthcoming.
While India was unable to manage adequate finances sought by Sri Lanka, Japan has already provided sufficient funds to develop the Trincomalee Port. The ACSA (2017), SOFA (2020) and MCC (pending) should be seen as part of Washington’s assurance to India that it is fully committed to the "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" vision shared with Japan.
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