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. Minister Pompeo also addressed Colombo to establish a military base in Sri Lanka through a new agreement, the Status of the Armed Forces Agreement (SoFA). This proposal provoked mixed reactions in Colombo. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced that he would not allow his government to conclude a military agreement that would allow U.S. troops free access to Sri Lankan ports and said, „I will not name SoFA as it wants to betray the nation. Some foreign troops want to make Sri Lanka one of their bases. I will not let them enter the country and question our sovereignty. On the other hand, its pro-Western Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, told Parliament that SoFA would define only the military rights and privileges of each country and would not set conditions for joint missions or bases, as the US ambassador to Sri Lanka also noted. Two defence cooperation agreements between the United States and Sri Lanka, the acquisition and cross-service agreement already signed (ACSA) and the under-negotiated Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), are causing concern, criticism and controversy on the Indian Ocean island. In cases where they may be billed by the U.S. Department of Defense, the agreement requires that the fees be no more than what the Sri Lankan military pays. The debate on the need for such an agreement is at the centre of the debate, especially after the Easter Sunday attacks, and it is widening a deeper rift between the country`s president, Sirisena Maithripala, and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who are already in a dilemma.

Sri Lankans, however, remain skeptical. Part of the problem lies in the fact that there is „little information in public opinion“ about the „specificities“ of the agreements. Colombo and Washington had already concluded the acquisition and cross-service agreements in 2007 and renewed them in 2017.