Sri Lanka is an island nation which lays in the Indian Ocean about 50 km off the coast of India across the Palk Strait. It was previously known by the name of Ceylon until 1972 when it became the Republic of Sri Lanka and later the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in 1978. The country was ruled by the Portuguese and then the British until gaining independence in 1948. Sri Lanka is a Democratic Republic which is governed by a mixed presidential and parliamentary system. Over the last decade, the economy has been plagued with unsustainable debt, negative growth, high inflation and growing poverty.
In 2023 Sri Lanka announced a plan to cut its military by a third, with an intent to reduce the military further by 2030. While the country is experiencing an extreme economic downturn, extreme cuts were deemed necessary. Sri Lanka's military peaked in 2019 at over 300,000 people. Its Army is now estimated to have around 135,000 staff and is planned to reach 100,000 by the end of the decade. Australia and Sri Lanka celebrated 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2022. Transnational crime is a large focus of collaboration between the two militaries.