Bangladesh, Sri Lanka expand partnerships to strengthen maritime security

Mandeep Singh

As strategic competition intensifies across the Indian Ocean region, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are expanding international partnerships to boost maritime domain awareness, secure critical trade lanes and combat illicit activity at sea. The South Asian nations are strengthening defense ties with Japan, the United States and other regional Allies and Partners while maintaining their strategic autonomy.

“Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have pursued maritime capacity building primarily by working with bilateral partners,” said Nilanthi Samaranayake, who focuses on national security issues as an adjunct fellow at the East-West Center, a U.S.-based think tank. India and the U.S. have been Sri Lanka’s most important partners, she told FORUM, while Bangladesh benefits from participating in defense exercises with the U.S. and from Washington’s transfer of maritime assets such as coast guard cutters, patrol boats and surveillance drones.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are among the nations eligible for assistance under the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative, which was launched a decade ago to strengthen multilateral maritime security and domain awareness. However, each nation’s engagement with the U.S. has deeper roots. Bangladesh was the first South Asian country to participate in the U.S.-led Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise series, in 2010, with Sri Lanka joining in 2017. CARAT Sri Lanka 2026 was conducted in late July in the Indian Ocean and ashore at Colombo and Trincomalee, while CARAT Bangladesh was held in early November 2026.

Similar partnerships increasingly extend across the region. Japan supports the navies of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through its Official Security Assistance program. Bangladesh received five patrol vessels from Tokyo in mid-2026 and Sri Lanka is set to receive Japanese-made uncrewed aerial vehicles for surveillance and disaster relief.

Canberra is another valued partner in the Indian Ocean region. The Australia-Sri Lanka maritime security initiative Operation Disi Rela, most recently conducted across the South Asian island nation in June 2026, targets transnational crime including drug smuggling, human trafficking and illegal fishing. Under the initiative, Australia also provided the Sri Lanka Coast Guard with 12 long-range drones and five all-terrain vehicles.

As members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka participated in the seven-nation bloc’s inaugural maritime security exercise in India in October and November 2026. India and Sri Lanka agreed in 2025 to cooperate on defense initiatives, including through the Colombo Security Conclave, which also includes Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles.

Given their strategic location along vital shipping routes and resource-rich waterways, “Dhaka and Colombo have sought to secure their maritime areas and increase their maritime domain awareness,” Samaranayake said.

Mandeep Singh is a FORUM contributor reporting from New Delhi, India.