Sri Lanka declined permission for two US combat aircraft to land at a civilian airport earlier this month,
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told parliament on Friday.
The US had requested permission for the two aircraft to land at the Mattala
Rajapaksa International Airport in the southern part of the country from March 4-8, Dissanayake told lawmakers.
“They wanted to bring two warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles from a base in
Djibouti,” he said during a statement.