• How Australia and SL are reshaping maritime security across the Indian Ocean, and why the man at the centre of it – Commander of the Australian Border Force, Rear Admiral Brett Sonter – keeps coming back

He has made this journey seven times. Fourteen hours in the air, thousands of kilometres of ocean below, and yet the Commander of the Joint Agency Task Force (JATF) – Operation Sovereign Borders, the Maritime Border Command and the Australian Border Force, Rear Admiral Brett Sonter describes Sri Lanka as the home of one of Australia’s closest maritime partnerships.

“We’re like-minded nations in many ways,” he says, at the conclusion of what has been a characteristically busy visit. “But, importantly, we’re Indian Ocean neighbours. It takes me about 14 hours to get home, yet, we’re actually next-door neighbours in the ocean.”

The Rear Admiral was in Colombo recently to mark the launch of Phase Three of Operation Disi Rela, a joint maritime security initiative between the Australian Border Force and the Sri Lanka Coast Guard. The programme’s name is drawn from Sinhala, which means ‘keeping a watchful eye over the maritime environment’, a phrase that captures its essence precisely. But, the operation has grown far beyond watchful eyes and coastal patrols. It now encompasses intelligence sharing, community outreach, investigative capacity building, and the donation of sophisticated surveillance equipment. And, if Rear Admiral Sonter has his way, it is about to grow further still.

From patrols to partnership

Operation Disi Rela was launched in 2024 as Australia sought to formalise and deepen an already well-established working relationship with the Sri Lanka Coast Guard. The programme sits within the broader framework of Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders strategy, which seeks to prevent irregular migration by sea through upstream engagement, which means working with source and transit countries long before vessels attempt the treacherous journey South.

The first two phases, Rear Admiral Sonter says, have delivered on two distinct but equally important fronts. “I think that two things stand out. The first is the cooperation and collaboration between the Australian Border Force and the Sri Lankan Coast Guard, which is a very real, measurable outcome. The second is that Disi Rela has always been about more than just collaboration between our two nations. It is about community and public awareness, encouraging the community to report when they see something unusual or out of the ordinary. After the first two phases, we have seen a real growth in community engagement, and that is very encouraging.”

That community engagement has been underpinned by a dedicated 106 hotline, introduced as part of the initiative to allow members of the public, including fishermen, harbour workers, and coastal residents, to anonymously report suspicious maritime activity. The hotline sits alongside joint patrols along Sri Lanka’s Southern coastline, with particular focus on areas including Hambantota, Dondra, and Mirissa, historically significant departure points for vessels attempting the crossing toward Australia.

Australia has also backed the initiative with considerable material support, donating high-performance Stabicraft patrol vessels, surveillance drones, and maritime monitoring systems to the Sri Lanka Coast Guard. During this latest visit, Rear Admiral Sonter oversaw the handover of another consignment of drones, with more, he notes, still on their way. “We donated some more drones to the Coast Guard. There are other donations on their way. If the Sri Lankan Coast Guard is stronger, then it is better for Australia as well. It is within both our interests.”

Phase 3: Deeper roots, wider reach

Phase Three of Disi Rela, formally launched during this visit, builds on those foundations while sharpening the focus on community awareness and intelligence-led enforcement. “Phase Three is really about enhancing community awareness further,” Rear Admiral Sonter explains. "It’s about helping people understand what to look for and how to report it. We are hoping that through this renewed focus, we will build on and increase the community engagement that we achieved in Phases One and Two.”

Beyond community outreach, the Phase also aims to strengthen Sri Lanka’s long-term investigative capacity. Here, Rear Admiral Sonter points to a partner agency that operates largely out of the public eye. “It is important to note that it is not just the Australian Border Force here in Sri Lanka. One of the most critical in terms of investigation is the Australian Federal Police (AFP). There is active collaboration between elements of the Sri Lankan Police Force and the AFP that is helping build investigative capacity, and that is a really important strand of what we are doing together.”

The results, by at least one measure, have been tangible. Since 2024, Australia has recorded a clear decline in irregular migration attempts by Sri Lankan nationals. “Definitely,” he confirms, when asked whether the numbers have fallen. “Since 2024, we’ve definitely seen a reduction. And that is for numerous reasons. But, at the forefront, the centrepiece of that is the greater collaboration that we have between our two nations.”

When crimes converge

If the broader picture is one of cautious progress, Rear Admiral Sonter is careful not to understate the complexity of the threat landscape. What has changed in recent years, he argues, is not the existence of individual criminal activities but their increasingly blurred boundaries.

“What we are seeing is really the conflation of threats,” he says. “Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is now being conflated with people smuggling, which is being conflated with drug trafficking, which is then being conflated with other forms of crime. It is not necessarily a new trend in terms of human trafficking or people smuggling in isolation, it is more the convergence of what used to be separate threats. That is what we are observing now.”

IUU fishing has long been a concern in Sri Lankan waters, where vast stretches of Ocean are difficult to monitor and foreign vessels frequently operate beyond their licensed zones. The suggestion that criminal networks are now using fishing operations as cover for people smuggling or drug trafficking reflects a pattern seen across multiple maritime enforcement jurisdictions globally.

Intelligence sharing has become correspondingly more critical. “Intelligence is about taking information and making accurate assessments based on multiple sources,” Rear Admiral Sonter explains. “Through the trust and collaboration that we have developed with Sri Lanka over many years, we are now very trusted partners. That trust means that we are sharing more information, which in turn helps both sides make more accurate assessments. We have definitely seen a meaningful improvement in this area.”

The harder questions

Operation Disi Rela, and Australia’s broader Operation Sovereign Borders strategy, have not been without criticism. Human rights advocates have long argued that aggressive deterrence policies, particularly those that turn back vessels at sea, can put vulnerable people at risk and may conflict with Australia’s obligations under international refugee law.

Rear Admiral Sonter acknowledges the tension directly. “Whenever you are conducting an operation involving any person, safety must be at the forefront of every decision,” he says. “In Australia, we must comply with our domestic law, but we also have international obligations, and we take those very seriously. That is how we approach it.”

He stops short of engaging in a detailed policy debate, but the point is clear: the Australian Border Force views border enforcement and humanitarian obligation not as opposites but as concurrent requirements that must both be met in every operational decision.

A wider ocean

The Indian Ocean has rarely felt more contested. In recent months, regional maritime security has been thrown into sharp focus by a series of incidents, including the reported sinking of an Iranian military vessel in waters near Sri Lanka following an engagement with a United States submarine, an event that drew significant international attention and underscored the extent to which great power competition has extended deep into the Indian Ocean.

Asked whether the incident has altered Australia’s maritime threat calculus for the Indo-Pacific, Rear Admiral Sonter is measured. “It has not materially changed my threat picture,” he says. “My focus is on civil maritime threats; people smuggling, drug trafficking, IUU fishing, and from that perspective, the incident has not had a direct impact on our assessment. We remain focused on the civil maritime space.”

Rear Admiral Sonter’s point speaks to Australia’s strategy in the Indian Ocean as not primarily one of naval posturing, but of patient, relationship-based civil maritime cooperation. Building that cooperation, he suggests, is itself a form of regional stability.

“Our partnership with Sri Lanka has long been built on a very strong foundation of trust, largely established through our cooperation on people smuggling,” he says. “What I am now looking to do is to expand that relationship beyond people smuggling into the broader civil maritime threat environment. When I look at partners that we trust and can grow with, Sri Lanka is at the forefront of my thinking.”

Five years on

Asked to sketch what meaningful success looks like in five years, the Rear Admiral pauses, then smiles. “In five years, I am going to be an old person,” he says. “But, I think that what we’ll look at is just enhancing that already strong relationship.”

He returns to the geography that seems to anchor his thinking. Australia and Sri Lanka are separated by an Ocean and connected by it simultaneously. The distance is measured in flight hours; the proximity is measured in shared waters, shared threats, and shared intelligence. “It takes me about 14 hours to fly home, across thousands of kilometres, yet, in the context of the ocean, we are right next door to each other,” he says. “What success looks like is a deeper, more capable partnership moving forward, not just Australia helping Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka as a partner helping Australia as well.”

He is emphatic on reciprocity. “We learn a great deal from the Sri Lankan Coast Guard, and I hope that they learn from us. That mutual respect and mutual benefit is what a genuine partnership looks like.”

PHOTO Ishan Sanjeewa