India and the US have agreed to provide enhanced training opportunities for Navy personnel from Sri Lanka, it was announced Tuesday.
This followed meetings Sri Lankan defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse had with General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and defence minister A.K. Anthony in Singapore, according to agency reports.
The move is clearly aimed at containing the growing influence of China in the Indian Ocean and to contest its claim to South China Sea.
The high-profile meetings that took place on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue and their outcome could raise the tempers in Tamil Nadu, where chief minister J. Jayalalithaa had piloted a unanimous resolution in the state Assembly demanding that India impose economic embargo on Sri Lanka until the Rajapakse regime delivered a fair solution to the Tamil problem.
All the other parties in the state have also faulted Delhi for being soft on Colombo.
Releasing the outcome of the Gotabhaya meetings with Gen. Dempsey and Mr Antony, a Sri Lankan foreign ministry statement said, “As a coastal nation, the meetings recognised the pivotal role the Sri Lanka Navy could play in strengthening the security of the sea lanes in the Indian Ocean.” It said the three countries “resolved to cooperate closely in drawing on their synergies in combating international terrorism.”
“As two key strategic partners of Sri Lanka, the US and India responded positively to a request for enhanced training opportunities for capacity building of defence personnel in their institutes of repute,” the statement said. It said the US and India commended the “incremental and steady progress” made in Sri Lanka’s north and east in rehabilitating the war-displaced.