Sri Lanka is a struggling economy dependent on International Monetary Fund(IMF) bailouts since 2023 after a financial crisis between 2019 and 2022 that peaked with the government defaulting on its sovereign debt.

With its small naval and coast guard fleet supported by an even tinier budget and workforce it is seen as a minor player in the Indian Ocean.

According to a televised address by Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake as cited by Times of India, the country’s navy has rescued the crew of a second Iranian warship IRIS Bushehr. The Sri Lanka Navy has taken control of the vessel and given it asylum in its northeastern port of Trincomalee.

IRIS Bushehr reportedly had a problem with one of its engines and requested assistance to which the Sri Lankan government agreed after a brief consultation with the vessel’s captain who was safely taken ashore with his crew.

The IRIS Bushehr was under threat of becoming a casualty in international waters of the Indian Ocean after another Iranian ship the IRIS Dena was sunk by a US submarine using a Mk48 torpedo near Sri Lanka on March 4 2026.

Sri Lanka rescued 79 members of the Dena crew and gave them medical assistance. However over 100 crew members were unaccounted for and are believed lost with the ship.

Explaining his country’s position President Dissanayake said "We are not taking sides in this conflict, but while maintaining our neutrality we are taking action to save lives. No person should die in a war like this. Every life is equally precious".

Accounting for its small resource base and liabilities it is astonishing that Sri Lanka has taken this approach upstaging much larger littoral states like India which champions Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) as its major peacetime role.

In a statement issued late on March 5 the Indian Navy revealed that it had dispatched a long range maritime patrol aircraft likely a Boeing P8i, and two warships including “INS Tarangini which was operating in vicinity" and "was deployed for aiding the rescue efforts and arrived in search area by 1600 hr on 04 March 2026. By this time Search Aand Rescue(SAR) had been undertaken by Sri Lanka Navy and other agencies”.

The other Indian Navy ship “INS Ikshak has also sailed from Kochi to augment the search efforts and continues to remain in the area to search for missing personnel as a humanitarian measure for ship wrecked personnel”.

Ever since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, India has prided itself in being the first to rush aid with its naval vessels to any disaster hit country in the region including Sri Lanka.

In Delhi’s naval diplomacy and foreign policy circles it is often said with pride that Indian Naval vessels carry a special container with general purpose disaster relief aid supplies on their decks that can quickly be unloaded onto partner nation’s shores if the need arises.

In the past Indian warships have also rescued sailors and vessels in distress in its area of responsibility in the Indian Ocean littoral both alone and in conjunction with other countries’s forces and vessels.

China is curiously absent from the equation although its own littoral waters of the South and East China seas don’t directly put it in the path of the distressed Iranian vessels, however, Beijing has ambitions of challenging US hegemony and could have used the opportunity to showcase its blue water reach.