According to President Ranil Wickremesinghe of Sri Lanka, the country is dedicated to preserving its strategic locations in order to guarantee both the safety of maritime operations in the Indian Ocean and the lack of power struggles.
He said that because of the country's dedication to preserving marine freedoms and the harm done to the port of Colombo by the Six Day War-related closing of the Suez Canal, Sri Lanka has offered to collaborate with the Red Sea Security Initiatives.
Thus, the President of Sri Lanka made the point that safeguarding the unrestricted freedom of shipping is essential.
Under the direction of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Pathbinder Forum arranged the third phase of the Indus Sea Security Conference, which took place in Colombo on February 28, 2024.
Throughout the two days of the conference, the significance of the Indian Ocean will be discussed, with a focus on the region's complementary potential in relation to global supply chains and security.
President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, who provided additional commentary here,
It is encouraging that the Pathbinder group has established this forum to talk about one of the primary problems that Sri Lanka and the other nations in the area are experiencing.
We should thank Milinda Moragoda for setting up this meeting and for her ongoing attention to the zone's security.
The Indo-Pacific program and the One Track - One Route program do not include the Indus Ocean. Today, the Indian Ocean is a major strategic and political area on the planet. It's only occurred in the previous five or six years. We can verify it based on the current occurrences.
In a similar vein, India will surpass all other nations in terms of economic size. It is widely acknowledged that India's commercial market will keep growing until the end of the twenty-first century. Indonesia's economy is also about to explode.
As a result, the Indus Sea region is currently seeing economic growth. Despite the current circumstances, Sri Lanka is steadfast in its commitment to maintaining the strategic position of power-free navigation in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lanka made the decision to assist with the Red Sea efforts as a result. The freedom of travel via the Suez Canal must be safeguarded due to the rising expenses of development in the existing environment. The Six-Day War resulted in the closure of the Suez Canal, which caused a 10-year catastrophe for the port of Columbo. According to Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickramasinghe, maritime transportation freedom needs to be protected.
Milinda Morakoda, the founder of the Pathbinder Forum, Julie Chung, the US ambassador, Hayashi Makoto, Japan's deputy minister for South West Asian affairs, Bernard Gunathilak and Sivashankar Menon, co-chairs of the Pathbinder Indian Ocean Security Conference, high commissioners, ambassadors, ministerial officials, tri-army officers, and domestic country representatives are just a few of the individuals involved. Several people took part in this activity.