Sri Lanka: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Dec. 2, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IF10213 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Colin Willett |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
-
Premium Revised Nov. 4, 2024 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Dec. 18, 2023 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Oct. 17, 2023 (2 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Feb. 23, 2023 (2 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Jan. 14, 2022 (2 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Jan. 28, 2021 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised June 25, 2020 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Dec. 4, 2019 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Oct. 1, 2019 (2 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised April 25, 2019 (2 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium May 17, 2018 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
|
Summary:
The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a
constitutional democracy situated off the southeastern tip of
India’s Deccan Peninsula in the heart of the Indian Ocean.
Located along key shipping lanes, Sri Lanka and its Port of
Colombo—already a significant global shipping hub—have
grown in strategic importance as conflicts in the Middle
East have disrupted shipping in the Red Sea. The State
Department has described Sri Lanka as “in the middle of
the geopolitical competition for regional influence.”
A democracy since its independence from the United
Kingdom in 1948, Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon until 1972)
was governed by two major political parties and their
offshoots until September 2024. From 1983 to 2009 the
government, dominated by the Buddhist Sinhalese majority,
fought a brutal civil war against the separatist Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Hindu Tamil minority
objects to long-standing official discrimination, and the
militant LTTE fought to establish a separate state in
northern Sri Lanka. During the war, the government
expanded executive power, militarized the country, and
limited civil freedoms. In 2022, Sri Lanka experienced its
worst economic crisis since independence, sparking a
public uprising that drove former President Gotabaya
Rajapaksa from power. In September 2024, Sri Lankans
elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake as president, and in
November 2024 gave his National People’s Power (NPP)
alliance a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections.
Starting in the late 2000s, U.S. policy focused on
broadening Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions, promoting
good governance and human rights, and facilitating postwar reconciliation. Since the 2022 economic and political
crises, U.S. priorities have expanded to include supporting
economic reforms and more inclusive growth. U.S.
policymakers, including many in Congress, also have raised
concerns about the Sri Lankan government’s growing ties
to the People’s Republic of China (PRC, or China) over the
past two decades. Under former Presidents Mahinda
Rajapaksa (2005-2015) and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa
(2019-2022), Sri Lanka’s government relied on China to
support its fight against the LTTE, as well as numerous
post-war development projects, causing some observers to
express concern about the potential for China to exert
economic and military influence in a key part of the region.
