After defaulting on its debt for the first time, Sri Lanka has announced plans to reduce its army strength by about a third by next year, as the island nation faces the greatest financial crisis in recent memory. Bankrupt Sri Lanka to cut army strength by one-third for economic gains.
The Sri Lankan government makes the declaration since military spending accounts for the majority of the country’s annual budget.
Sri Lankan deputy defense minister Premitha Bandara Thennakoon termed military might and sustainable economic development ‘two sides of a coin, which stay together, but never communicate to each other in open’.
Explaining the rationale to cut the number of soldiers to 135,000 from the current over 0.2 million by 2024, the deputy PM said the budget for armed forces is linked with new avenues for economic growth as it assures national and human security.
Thennakoon, however, mentioned cutting the army strength to 1 lac by 2030, calling the government’s aim for a well-balanced defense force to deal with security challenges.
The South Asian country earlier increased defence budget following years of civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which killed over 100,000 people.
After regaining peace in recent years, the country owes lenders more than $50 billion, and its central bank declared a pre-emptive default.
The latest development comes as international financiers have urged Sri Lankan authorities to get rid of white elephants and raise taxes. Wickremesinghe’s government declared a reduction in army size in order to complete a debt restructuring agreement with the IMF and other lenders.
Last year, the island nation faced the worst food and fuel shortages, protracted outages, and unprecedented inflation, inciting people to storm the prime minister’s office after the president fled.
