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NAVSTRAT-2030 NAVSTRAT-2030
Geopolitical and Regional Dynamics ......................................................................................... 98

Compliance with Local and International Laws and Conventions ............................................. 98 CHAPTER 1
Cyber Security Audits .............................................................................................................. 100 ASPIRATIONS OF THE NATION AND SRI LANKA NAVY

Review of Environmental Impact............................................................................................. 100
Introduction
CHAPTER 13 ............................................................................................................................. 101

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 101 The development of the ‘Proposal for Sri Lanka Navy’s Strategy 2030 and Beyond’ (NAVSTRAT-
2030) is a progression of the SLN’s Maritime Strategy 2025. To accomplish the intended goals,
this strategy will look at our ocean space, its potential and how crucial it is that Sri Lanka Navy
(SLN) fulfils its obligations. This strategy will guarantee that the threats and challenges are
investigated and that the significance of benefiting from the ocean is strongly supported by SLN.
Thus, the main goal of this endeavour is to demonstrate the SLN’s need to effectively address
current and emerging maritime threats and challenges to protect our national interests.

Historical Context and Importance of Maritime Security for Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a country with a rich maritime tradition spanning over 2550 years. The ship that
carried Vijaya the son of Sinhabahu (reigned in Sinhapura, a city in present Gujarat) is said to have
landed at Tambapanni on the very day of the Lord Buddha’s Parinirvanaya. The first settlement of
Indo-Aryan mariners and emigrants arrived from Northwestern India to Ceylon towards the end
of the 4th century BC were an agricultural community. The pioneer settlement had encouraged
further waves of emigrants to follow this distance by sea which is approximately 1500 miles and
none but intrepid seamen in seaworthy ships could have accomplished this succession of outward
and return voyages. Seafaring, in every aspect of its activities, was the forte of these earliest
colonists of Ceylon and should have been the inherited skill of their descendants, the Sinhalese.
Even in the reign of King Devanampiya Tissa (250-210 BC), it is said that these voyages up to the
Ganges and back had been made by the King’s envoys with gifts to Mauryan Emperor, Asoka.

With rapidly increasing commerce between the Arabs and Romans with South India led to a
struggle between the South Indians and the Sinhalese, for the mastery of the South Indian seas for
Ceylon’s rich export trade following which the products of Ceylon had to be transported to South
Indian ports and sold to Westerners. However, about the year 125 AD, Roman ships began to sail
into Ceylon harbours and to deal directly with the Sinhalese. Chinese ships were also trading
directly with the Sinhalese at this time and Ceylon became eventually a significant place for trade
in the Indian Ocean. Another most significant evidence is the stone inscription existing at the
Godawaya temple provides probably one of the oldest evidence on customs duties proving the
maritime heritage of Sri Lanka.

Another historical evidence is an invasion of Burma by King Parakramabahu I. The building of
the invasion fleet in the ports of Ceylon took only five months. The expedition set sail from the
port of Palvakki on the Northeast coast. King Parakramabahu’s next military undertaking across
the seas was the invasion of the South Indian Kingdom of Pandya.

Two well-known travellers who visited Ceylon after the fall of the Polonnaruwa Kingdom were
Marco Polo (1233) and Ibn Batuta (1344). The greatest of the Ceylon ports were Mahatittha
(Mantai) and Gotapabbatha (Ambalanthota). The other important ports of early time were Gokanna
(Trincomalee), Sukaratittha or Huratota (Kayts), Tambapanni (near the mouth of the Aruvi Aru)
and Uravela (at the mouth of Kala Oya). When close ties were established between the Malays and
Sinhalese, the ports on the South and East coasts, particularly Waligama and Trincomalee, were
much used. It was not till about the tenth century that Galle and Colombo came into prominence.

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