ECONOMYNEXT- Sri Lanka has withdrawn from an Integrated Field Exercise (IFE) under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Foreign Ministry sources said, a month the new government postponed the event with the mutual consensus of the international body in charge.
Sri Lanka announced in 2023 that it had ratified the agreement the country signed in 1996. Soon after signing the agreement in 1996, an auxiliary seismic station was set up in Pallekele, Kandy.
After the ratification, Sri Lanka’s Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) had submitted a bid to the CTBTO to host a six-week Integrated Field Exercise 2025 (IFE 2025) in about a 1000 square kilometres land area in the Eastern Province.
Works under the treaty including on-site inspection (OSI) events were to be carried out by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, headquartered in Europe.
“Sri Lanka withdrew from hosting the IFE of the CTBTO,” a Foreign Ministry source told EconomyNext.
Another source confirmed the move and said Sri Lanka has already informed the CTBTO, the international body in charge.
Foreign Ministry Spokesmen and officials from the CTBTO were not immediately available for comment.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath last month said that the government has informed its decision on postponing the IFE to the CTBTO.
The IFE has conducted similar events in Kazakhstan (2008) and Jordan (2014).
Since the signing of the ratification of the Treaty, the crisis-hit Sri Lanka has to pay an annual fee of over 25,000 Euros, a government document showed.
The Integrated Field Exercise is a simulated field exercise for technical experts and scientists from CTBTO.
CTBTO reconnaissance team had identified a land area adjacent to the Maduruoya National Park in the Eastern Province for the IFE-2025.
Concerns were raised over the allocation of vast land area in the Eastern province citing that it could have an impact on tourism industry and lands accessed by private entities and the general public, according to officials familiar with the process.
The IFE includes activities such as ground surveys, drilling for samples, or the deployment of equipment could temporarily disturb local ecosystems, including soil and vegetation, they said.
Wildlife could also have been displaced due to human presence and noise during the exercise.
The Integrated Field Exercise was to use seismic instruments, and other equipment which may cause minor physical alterations with ground-based methods, like trenching or shallow excavation likely to cause localized disturbances.
The exercise could involve releasing chemicals to simulate an explosion and create conditions that will enable them to monitor nuclear radiation in a controlled environment, the officials said. (Colombo/February 19/2025)
Continue Reading
