China has no military presence in Lanka: SL assures India

[INDIAPOSITIVE]

Sri Lanka's Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Jayantha Perera on Monday allayed India's fears on increasing Chinese military presence in the island nation, as he categorically stated that his nation will never compromise on India's national security or for that matter of any other country.

"We have very good co-operation with India. We will never compromise on national security of India. India's security is our security. Not only Chinese, even the Russians and other countries also we have very good relationship, we are non-aligned country," Sri Lanka's Navy Chief told ANI.

Perera also tried to assuage India concerns downplaying China making any strategic inroads into the region.

"They are coming normally for operational goodwill visit... For your information there is no Chinese military presence.... the interest is very commercial," he said.

Calling himself as a friend of India, Perera thanked India for lending its support to end the ethnic conflict in the island nation, which he said is now marching towards economic revival.

"I must thank India. They whole heartedly supported to relegate terrorism, now we are very fast track on development and because of that there are lot of investors coming here in Sri Lanka purely on commercial and we will never compromise on security of any other country, especially India, because I am a personal friend of India..." he added.

Perera also ruled out any Chinese nuclear submarine docked in Sri Lanka stating that they are all conventional submarines.

"It is a conventional submarine, not a nuclear submarine," Perera said.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka's Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Jayantha Perera, who is on a five-day official visit to India inspected a guard of honour on Monday here at the South Block.

Vice Admiral Perera is visiting India at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Admiral R.K.


http://www.dailymirror.lk/55191/don...s-no-military-presence-in-lanka-sl-army-chief

 

[Lostsoldier]

The submarine is docked and the guy says there is no military presence :p

 

[kurup]

The submarine is docked and the guy says there is no military presence :p

Docked doe not mean military presence ....... it's just a normal visit .

 

[CNwansui]

Why would Chinese military presents in Sri Lanka

 

[Tshering22]

SL is better off as a peaceful third country that has good ties with all of its neighbors. We don't want them to get involved in something that needlessly spoils our relations. While they as a sovereign nation are free to pursue their ambitions of being independent and attract Chinese engagement, it should not harm anyone else.

Last time, we had a very unpleasant situation between us due to another issue that became a big problem for both of us.

SL should be like Singapore; mingle with everyone and keep out of all international tensions, growing peacefully and unaffected.

 

[birju]

SL is better off as a peaceful third country that has good ties with all of its neighbors. We don't want them to get involved in something that needlessly spoils our relations. While they as a sovereign nation are free to pursue their ambitions of being independent and attract Chinese engagement, it should not harm anyone else.

Last time, we had a very unpleasant situation between us due to another issue that became a big problem for both of us.

SL should be like Singapore; mingle with everyone and keep out of all international tensions, growing peacefully and unaffected.

You are fully right. Your comments are a reflection that you are a man of conscience, unlike some others.

Sri Lanka HAS TO ASSURE India. That means a lot. It means they value their relationship with India.

 

[newdelhinsa]

The submarine is docked and the guy says there is no military presence :p

Good one,The submarine was drove by Chinese traders who were there to buy Ceylon Tea.

 

[Armstrong]

@Gibbs - How exactly did India help Sri Lanka in combating terrorism ?

 

[Gibbs]

@Gibbs - How exactly did India help Sri Lanka in combating terrorism ?

Diplomatic, Intelligence and curtailing domestic pressures from Tamil Nadu.. Both the Govt of the UPA (Congress) and the then opposition BJP were unanimous in their decision to see the end of LTTE

The US were instrumental in Intelligence and global prohibition of the LTTE and curtailing it's fundraising in the West, Also the smuggling of weapons of the tigers

While steadfast allies Pakistan and China were at the forefront of the operation both in material, Training, manpower and diplomatic support

 

[Judge]

@Gibbs - How exactly did India help Sri Lanka in combating terrorism ?

Diplomatic, Intelligence and curtailing domestic pressures from Tamil Nadu.. Both the Govt of the UPA (Congress) and the then opposition BJP were unanimous in their decision to see the end of LTTE

The US were instrumental in Intelligence and global prohibition of the LTTE and curtailing it's fundraising in the West, Also the smuggling of weapons of the tigers

While steadfast allies Pakistan and China were at the forefront of the operation both in material, Training, manpower and diplomatic support

One more thing -

LTTE stored all its arms and ammo in floating warehouses in high seas and other islands - to be brought over to Sri Lanka only as much as needed.
Indian Navy blocked all arms supply routes to LTTE and passed information to SL when these warehouses were identified. SLN then destroyed them.

For domestic political reasons, our military had strict orders to not fire at LTTE.

 

[newdelhinsa]

For domestic political reasons, our military had strict orders to not fire at LTTE.

There have been off the record tactile killings of LTTE leadership as well, which we may not hear or read because of the same reason you mentioned.

BTW I am not a supporter of India's role in helping SL achieve that peace. They are going to back stab India like we were before.

LTTE should have been never allegedly supported by India against SL and SL should have been never helped to eradicate them either. Their brotherly countries Pakistan and China were good enough to help them do the same.

 

[notsuperstitious]

As long as SL does not try to go against India's national interest like they tried at one point in time, the two countries will have good relations.

 

[Judge]

There have been off the record tactile killings of LTTE leadership as well, which we may not hear or read because of the same reason you mentioned.

BTW I am not a supporter of India's role in helping SL achieve that peace. They are going to back stab India like we were before.

LTTE should have been never allegedly supported by India against SL and SL should have been never helped to eradicate them either. Their brotherly countries Pakistan and China were good enough to help them do the same.

As long as SL does not try to go against India's national interest like they tried at one point in time, the two countries will have good relations.

I think we did the right thing in helping them.
I don't think SL will do what they did last time. Times have changed, so has India.

Back then almost all of our neighbours - SL, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China took actions that harmed India directly for a variety of reasons. Today we share good relations with SL, Bangladesh, Myanmar and even China.

Today, our economic capability and our global diplomatic capability has increased exponentially - and we can impose costs to other nations.

And other nations see this too. There can be no better way to put it than Begum Zia of Bangladesh put it when asked by a reporter about a year back - about why India should trust her and her party when they openly indulged in anti- India behaviour when they were in power.

She said (I paraphrase) - India has changed, we recognize that. The old ways can not be carried into the future.

As long as SL takes steps to ensure India's security, India will take steps to ensure SL's security and together we can take South Asia out of poverty.

 

[Armstrong]

While steadfast allies Pakistan and China were at the forefront of the operation both in material, Training, manpower and diplomatic support

I know...I taught everything @Azizam knew about being a special agent; no wonder they used to call him Azizam Bond back in Sri Lanka !

Unfortunately he was a smooth talking flirt like 007 as well which got him in trouble more times than one can count !

 

[HeinzG]

The US were instrumental in Intelligence and global prohibition of the LTTE and curtailing it's fundraising in the West, Also the smuggling of weapons of the tigers

US wasn't supplying us with intel on LTTE on most occasions. They only did it when they realized the danger posed by LTTE floating ammo depots. On the other hand US nor any Western country prohibited LTTE fundraising. They still don't.

While steadfast allies Pakistan and China were at the forefront of the operation both in material, Training, manpower and diplomatic support

We should never forget the help Pakistan has given to us in 2000. When our troops were fighting desperately in Jaffna.

One more thing -
LTTE stored all its arms and ammo in floating warehouses in high seas and other islands - to be brought over to Sri Lanka only as much as needed.
Indian Navy blocked all arms supply routes to LTTE and passed information to SL when these warehouses were identified. SLN then destroyed them.

For domestic political reasons, our military had strict orders to not fire at LTTE.

No you're wrong. It was US that supplied SLN with the locations of the LTTE floating warehouses. And it was them that rejected SLN offer to destroy them. However if IN knew about the floating warehouses they could've easily sunk them because those floating warehouses were stationed at international zone many miles from both India and SL. No one would have known if the floating warehouses were destroyed.