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Australia-Sri Lanka in military exercise to strengthen Defence ties
Group Captain Sean Unwin Pic by Priyanka Samaraweera
A joint task-force led by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) flagship, two frigates, a replenishment oiler and nearly 1,000 Australian Defence Forces (ADF) personnel will arrive in Sri Lanka later this month to partake in ‘Indo-Pacific Endeavour-19′ (IPE-19), a multilateral defence cooperation exercise.
The Australian defence initiative will see ADF personnel and their Sri Lankan counterparts engage in several training exercises and activities aimed at improving cooperation and familiarity between the armed forces of the two nations, and explore opportunities to further promote regional stability.
“Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) and Maritime Surveillance will be key areas in which the ADF will engage with their Sri Lankan counterparts during IPE-19,” said Acting Australian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, John Philip, Friday (15) at a press conference.
The Australians will also visit several military training establishments here, including the Kukuleganga Peace Operations Training Centre.
“Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper acknowledges Sri Lanka’s location on a vital maritime corridor in the Indian Ocean,” said HC Philip. He said that 70 years of close diplomatic relations between Australia and Sri Lanka was underpinned by a close relationship between the nations’ peoples.
“Australia’s vision for the Indo-Pacific is a region that is secure, open, prosperous and resilient,” claimed HC Philip, emphasising that Sri Lanka was a partner of choice for Australia in the Indo-Pacific.
Australia and her allies Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom have increased their military-to-military cooperation with Sri Lanka after 2015.
Strategic concerns of stability, uninterrupted lines of communication and geopolitical changes in the Indian Ocean in the 2000′s have seen an increase in bilateral and multilateral defence engagements in the region, by Australia and extra regional actors, in the last decade. High profile ADF officers have attended a string of Sri Lankan defence seminars and discussions in the last few years.
Sri Lanka and Australia are increasingly like-minded on maritime security and Indian Ocean issues said HC Philip. His comments come against the backdrop of a well established relationship between the two countries on maritime crime, human trafficking, illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking.
Recently, a Police Narcotic Bureau officer told the Sunday Times, on condition of anonymity, that the Australian Federal Police and Border Force cooperate with their Sri Lankan counterparts by sharing information and skills on countering drug smuggling.
“I think we are still exploring what the full extension of the relationship can be. This defence engagement may be an opportunity to explore where that relationship can lead to in the future.” HC Philip told the Sunday Times, in response to a question of a possible future Australia-Sri Lanka Defence partnership.
“The ADF Joint Task Group will be in Sri Lanka from March 23-30,” said Group Captain Sean Unwin, Defence Attache at the Australian High Commission.
“Our engagements in Trincomalee will focus on Navy-to-Navy engagement between our two countries,” said Grp Capt Unwin, explaining that, in Trincomalee, both parties will be working on inter-operability.