(11) The Embassy proposes that the parties waive any claim (excluding contractual claims) for damages, loss or destruction of property or injury or death of the personnel of the armed forces of a party or its civilian personnel resulting from the performance of their official duties related to the activities under this agreement. Third-party claims for damage or losses caused by U.S. personnel are resolved by the U.S. government in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations. U.S. Ambassador to Colombo Alaina Teplitz recently made some public statements on SOFA, which she described as a „visitation agreement.“ It tried to present it as a harmless document capable of entering and exiting „largely logistical and administrative“ issues related to „visiting teams participating in exercises“ and on daily issues such as mutual recognition of professional licenses, professional service fees and US staff in Sri Lanka, etc. The U.S. Embassy has repeatedly stated that the United States does not plan a „military base“ in Sri Lanka. But then, more recently, this is not the approach taken by the superpower to expand its military footprint. Today, the United States has its „partners and allies“ who share some of the burden of achieving common goals.
The U.S. mantra of a „free and open Indo-Pacific“ illustrates the strategy, with Japan, India and Australia being asked to defend themselves against China`s growing maritime power. In the meantime, the United States believes that it is useful (and economically) to negotiate bilateral agreements with certain strategic states. (12) In addition, the message proposes: that, upon its entry into force, this agreement replaces the agreement on the status of the US military and civilian personnel of the Ministry of Defence who may travel to Sri Lanka for exercises or other official functions that were carried out by the exchange of banknotes in Colombo on 9 February and 16 May 1995 and which came into force on 16 May 1995 and came into force May 16, 1995. , 1995. However, as Samaranayake points out, proposed defence pacts with the United States tend to be controversial in the first place. That is what happened, for example, with India, when the United States followed logistics and communication pacts. „New Delhi has finally concluded these agreements,“ she notes. The political issue of SOFA is complicated by the fact that many host countries have mixed feelings about foreign bases on their soil and that SOFA renegotiation requests are often linked to calls for a total withdrawal of foreign troops. Questions of different national customs may arise – while the United States and host countries in general agree on what a crime is, many American observers believe that the host country`s judicial systems offer defendants much less protection than the United States.
