COLOMBO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka and India on Friday discussed expanding training between the various military arms of the two countries.
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Indian Defense Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur met in the central town of Kandy and explored opportunities for exchanging guest lecturers and long- term trainers at defense academies in the two countries.
Mathur told the president that training experiences of Sri Lankan military officials in India have gone well, the Sri Lankan president's office said in a statement.
"There are a whole lot of things we would also like to learn from Sri Lanka," Mathur said.
President Rajapaksa also took up the issues faced by Sri Lankan fishermen, primarily from the north, as a result of Indian bottom trawlers.
"The destruction of the environment is the biggest problem," President Rajapaksa said. "We have banned bottom trawling."
Pointing out that fishing resources will be completely depleted for both Sri Lanka and India if bottom trawling practices continue, President Rajapaksa said it will be the Tamil fishermen from Sri Lanka's north who will be most affected. Both parties hoped that dialogue between officials and affected parties would help bring a solution to the problem.
The Indian Defense Secretary was in Sri Lanka to take part in the second Annual Defense Dialogue (ADD) between India and Sri Lanka.
Mathur and Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa co- chaired the meeting along with their delegations, comprising officers from the Defense Ministries, External Affairs Ministries and the Armed Forces of both the countries.
During the second Annual Defense Dialogue, various ongoing defense cooperation initiatives were jointly reviewed and new avenues for cooperation identified. The regional security situation and issues of maritime security were also discussed at the meeting.
|
