Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe praised the role of the navy at a ceremony on Sunday, as he looked to expand the military’s role to “protecting sea routes” across the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lanka’s official navy website reported the prime minister as highlighting “the importance of safeguarding the sea area from Maldives through Pacific Ocean up to the Strait of Malacca and Singapore”.

“The Sri Lanka Navy will have to play a role in protecting the sea routes across the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the sea off Banda Aceh and the Strait of Malacca,” he was quoted as saying. “We will have to prepare for that.”

Speaking at a commissioning parade in Trincomalee, situated in the Tamil North-East, Mr Wickremesinghe also praised the navy and called on the newly commissioned officers to “dedicate their service to the betterment of the Navy and motherland”.

Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister pledged a future “devoid of extremism and terrorism” at the closing ceremony of a youth program held at a military camp in Sigiriya last week.

The Sri Lankan government reinstated the Yowun Puraya Program, which is being held with assistance from the Sri Lankan military and police services, after 28 years.

Under the theme “Future Begins”, approximately 5000 youth took part in the program, which was held at the Sri Lankan Air Force Base in Sigiriya from March 30 to April 3.

Activities at the camp included raising the Sri Lankan flag every morning, alongside “physical fitness programs” on the air force runway. There were also musical shows by the Sri Lankan army.

A total of 1450 army personnel also took part in a military tattoo, which showcased a series of security exercises, as the commander of Sri Lanka's army watched on.

Sri Lanka will look to finalise discussions on a potential US $1.5 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) standby facility reports the SundayTimes.lk.

Speaking to the paper, a source from the first day of talks with the IMF said,

“We hope to wrap up discussions on the subject this week. Friday’s round dealt with preliminaries.”
A delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday.

Sri Lanka hopes to seek a between US $1.5 – 2 billion from the IMF.

Sri Lanka and the US Navy will look to enhance bilateral training following talks between senior military leaders from US 7th Fleet, Sri Lanka’s Navy and Airforce.

The themes discussed included potential bilateral training and a joint effort between the US foreign militaries and other organisations to conduct civil military operations, reports Colombo Gazette

Sixteen officials from Sri Lanka’s Navy and Air Force attended the bilateral meeting hosted on the US navy 7th Fleet ship.

A set of secret documents obtained by a journalist reveal that during the last years of the war, British aid helped set up a vigilante network which supplied Sri Lanka's notoriously brutal police force with intelligence.

The documents, seen by VICE, show that the British government was aware of the risk of human rights abuses but continued to support the Sri Lankan security establishment regardless of that.

VICE's Phil Miller says that in 2008, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence "merged" a community policing project, that was being delivered by UK advisers, with civil defence activities which "involved forming unarmed youth vigilance groups to report on any suspicious items/people".

Sri Lanka's Central Bank is planning to raise $3.5bn through International Sovereign Bonds in order to tackle the emerging and serious debt crisis, the Sunday Times reports.

The bank said in a statement that the issuances in single or multiple tranches would be in US Dollar and Chinese Renminbi with a fixed coupon and medium to long term maturities where non-resident investors will be eligible to invest at the primary issuance.

A high-level Sri Lankan delegation, led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, is due to travel to China next week and will likely appeal to the government to write off the enormous loans Sri Lanka has racked up, according to the Sunday Times.

Mr Wickremesinghe will be accompanied by ministers Malik Samarawickrema, Sajith Premadasa, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Sarath Amunugama and Rauff Hakeem, with Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera due to join them in Beijing.

Senior UNP ministers are planning to meet with President Maithripala Sirisena over comments made by Highways State Minister Dilan Perera's recent comments, comparing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to a "Maradana rowdy". Maradana is a suburb of Colombo.

The ministers will ask the president to take appropriate action against Mr Perera, who is from Mr Sirisena's SLFP, the Daily Mirror reported.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena made moves towards granting retired military personnel contracts with public institutions, reports The Island.

Mr Sirisena ordered the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence to maintain a database of all retired military personnel, so that public institutions could offer them contracts. The move was also reportedly approved by the Sri Lankan cabinet “as a solution to the lack of technically and professionally skilled persons in the government”.