Controversial post-Aragalaya defence partnerships

Close on the heels of the first-ever joint tactical counter-terrorist exercise ‘Wolverine Path 2025,’ involving Russian and Sri Lankan troops, at the Army Training School, in Maduru Oya (25 Oct to 4 Nov 2025), Sri Lanka further expanded its partnership with the US.

- By SHAMINDRA FERDINANDO

Russian troops at Mattala airport

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), formalising the defence partnership between the Montana National Guard, the US Coast Guard District 13, and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces, in terms of the Department of War’s State Partnership Programme (SPP), took place at the Defence Ministry here, on 14th Nov.

Julie Chung, who is serving as the US Ambassador in SL, since 25 February, 2022, Adjutant General of the Montana National Guard, Brigadier General Trenton Gibson, and the Secretary of Defence, Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Sampath Thuyacontha, signed the MoU.

The US, in a statement issued through the Public Diplomacy section of their Embassy, in Colombo, declared that the MoU marked a historic milestone in US-Sri Lanka defence relations, underscoring both nations’ shared commitment to regional stability, maritime security, and professional military collaboration in the Indo-Pacific to advance their common goal of peace through partnership.