Pakistan-Srilanka ties after the LTTE

[ajtr]

Zardari in Sri Lanka: Counter-balancing India​

(December 06, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan visited Sri Lanka from November 27 to 30,2010, at the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Among those who accompanied him were Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, his Defence Minister, and Saleem Mandviwala, Chairman of the Investment Board of the Government of Pakistan. He was also accompanied by a delegation of Pakistani businessmen.

In an article on the visit titled “A new dawn in Pak-Lanka ties”, the “Daily Times” of Lahore said on December 6: “In the past, Pakistan helped the Sri Lankan state for three reasons. First, increasing Pakistan’s ability to participate in South Asian politics and posing itself as a counter-balance to India. Second, increasing its value in the region. Third, fighting Tamil militant forces, which are considered a product of Indian intelligence agencies. “

Pakistan’s value for Sri Lanka in the past came from its willingness to supply heavy equipment such as multi-barrel artillery guns and shells to the Sri Lankan Army for use against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It also helped the Sri Lankan Air Force in the servicing of its aircraft used against the LTTE. The heavy military equipment supplied by Pakistan and China helped the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in their operations against the LTTE.

Now that the LTTE has been defeated and practically destroyed by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, Sri Lanka does not have the same pressing need for military equipment from Pakistan as it had in the past. Despite this, Pakistan is interested in selling to Sri Lanka military equipment manufactured by it with Chinese assistance. This was one of the subjects discussed with Rajapaksa. The Pakistani Defence Minister accompanied Zardari to assist him in these discussions. Qureshi was reported to have told Pakistani journalists accompanying Zardari that Sri Lanka evinced interest in the purchase of the Pakistani al-Khalid Main Battle Tanks, light weapons and ammunition, and the JF-17 Thunder aircraft jointly produced by Pakistan and China.

The two leaders are reported to have agreed to enhance intelligence-sharing in matters relating to terrorism. Zardari reportedly offered to train Sri Lankan police and other security officials in counter-terrorism.

Sri Lanka has entered the post-insurgency reconstruction period and is in need of assistance for economic re-construction. Pakistan, whose economy is in a bad shape, is not in a position to help Sri Lanka either financially or through other means. One of the purposes of Zardari’s visit was to explore the possibility of Pakistan being associated with some of the reconstruction projects of China in Sri Lanka----one of the examples of such association being China buying from Pakistan its requirement of cement for its projects in Sri Lanka. Qureshi told Pakistani pressmen that China-Sri Lanka relations were gaining strength and this would be good for the benefit of the three countries. The idea of Pakistan and China co-operating in jointly assisting South Asian countries has also been taken up by Islamabad in respect of Afghanistan. Islamabad sees it as a way of counter-balancing Indian influence in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

According to Saleem Mandviwala, Pakistan has offered a soft credit of US $ 200 million to Sri Lanka for facilitating its exports and barter trade. After Zardari’s meeting with Rajapaksa on November 28, Pakistani officials told their correspondents that the two Governments had agreed to expand their relationship from defence cooperation to an “overall comprehensive engagement” involving trade, communications and culture. They said that the two Governments had identified cement, sugar, dairy production, chemical plants, textiles, tourism and pharmaceuticals as potential areas of mutually beneficial collaborative projects. During the visit, the two delegations inked three agreements on waiving off visas for officials and diplomats, cooperation in customs matters and strengthening cultural exchanges and a Memorandum of Understanding on agricultural co-operation.

A joint statement issued at the end of the visit said that the two countries have agreed to establish a multi-faceted partnership in security, trade, tourism and culture and to promote a dialogue on security and defence issues relevant to their bilateral relationship, through high-level contacts between the defence forces and the training of security forces personnel. They agreed to promote active cooperation in countering the menace of narcotics and illicit trafficking of narcotic substances and to establish mechanisms and modalities for such cooperation.

It was announced at the end of the visit that the National Bank of Pakistan will be opening a branch in Colombo and that the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will be re-starting its flights to Colombo from March next. The Sri Lankan Airways presently has three flights a week to Karachi. These decisions could have security implications for India. The transit of terrorists trained in Pakistan to South India via Colombo will be further facilitated and Colombo could become an additional centre ----after Kathmandu--- for the dissemination of Indian currency notes counterfeited by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The two countries presently have a Free Trade Agreement covering goods only signed in 2002. Bilateral trade has doubled from $150 million to $300 million per annum during the last three years They are holding talks on extending it to cover services too. Qureshi said that the next stage could be negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.



( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies.. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

 

[SurvivoR]

Hate to admit but at least I agree on this one... Pakistan's diplomacy sucks. India surely has the upper hand in diplomacy not cuz they r better, but cuz ours are corrupt to the core who don't give a damn about Pakistan or Pakistanis, (apart from a extremely few and rare good people which I happen to came to know about.)

 

[cybertron]

@survivor
So u r saying that pakistan has more corrupt than india
haha......u r wrong
evn their india beats pakistan by a huge number
u might be infering ur view by comparing the top level cabinet officials in both countries
come a notch down u will see rampant corruption in india.
then again, diplomacy and internel corruption are two completly independent matters.
In my view INDIA definitly is much much better in diplomacy with other countries.

 

[muSALMAN Khan]

5 permanent UNSC members will be in India 2010.
4 have already been there.
Pakistan is in SriLanka..
The difference is huge.

 

[Malik Usman]

It was announced at the end of the visit that the National Bank of Pakistan will be opening a branch in Colombo and that the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will be re-starting its flights to Colombo from March next. The Sri Lankan Airways presently has three flights a week to Karachi. These decisions could have security implications for India. The transit of terrorists trained in Pakistan to South India via Colombo will be further facilitated and Colombo could become an additional centre ----after Kathmandu--- for the dissemination of Indian currency notes counterfeited by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).


Here comes the Indian mentality.....I am feeling smell something is burning.
They are loosing hope to destabilize the Sri Lanka as they were training and funding LTTE.

 

[rockstarIN]

I think there is no reason to worry about Pakistan-Sri Lanka relations.

Their relation was good in the past as well as now also.

Do not feel that It will counter balance India, It is not always you are either with us or against us.

Also Sri lanka won't harm any Indian interest in the region for sure, we are good neighbors now.

 

[RPK]

Sri Lanka rules out defence deal with Pakistan

Sri Lanka has firmly ruled out any defence cooperation pact with Pakistan although they maintained very strong military ties during the height of the ethnic war in the country.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the powerful defence secretary, said the government did not discuss the possibility of a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) during the recent four-day visit by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

"President Mahinda Rajapakse had not discussed any defence-related proposal with his Pakistani counterpart," the privately-run Island newspaper quoted the Defence Secretary on Wednesday, who is also the president's younger brother.

The Island said the defence secretary dismissed what he called unsubstantiated media reports on a post-war DCA between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

However, a joint statement issued by Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the end of Zardari's visit last month said they had agreed to promote a dialogue on, among other things, defence and security issues.

Zardari, who held closed-door talks with President Rajapakse, discussed increasing trade and defence cooperation, the president's office said on November 28.

It gave no details of the defence cooperation, but Pakistan was a main supplier of arms and ammunition when government forces were locked in combat with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Pakistan provided heavy weapons that were used to crush the Tamil Tigers in May last year which brought an end to their 37-year violent struggle for a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka.

Gotabhatya told the Sri Lankan daily that his brother's government had not entered into any DCA during the fighting with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), though the country acquired arms, ammunition and equipment from several countries, including Pakistan.

"In the aftermath of our victory over the LTTE in May last year, we'll have to review our defence needs and equipment," he said.

"For over 30 years, we have been buying armaments from different sources depending on our requirement, financial terms and the availability," the secretary said.

Commenting on Opposition allegations of increased defence spending after the war ended last year, Rajapakse said armed forces could not be disbanded or drastically reduced although the LTTE posed no conventional military threat.

The government allocated Rs. 215 billion (USD 1.92 billion for defence for 2011, or about one fifth of the national budget, the paper said.

Gotabhatya said that country had no option but to keep defence spending high because of hefty installment payments on military hardware bought over the years.

The 200,000-member strong army would take the lion?s share of the defence budget, the Defence Secretary said.

The army will absorb just over half of the entire defence spending to maintain its personnel. He said that re-positioning of security forces in a post-war era was a costly business as new bases and cantonments were needed to accommodate troops in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

"This is a very high priority. Unlike during the war, troops cannot be given makeshift shelter," he said.




http://www.brahmand.com/news/Sri-Lanka-rules-out-defence-deal-with-Pakistan/5733/1/13.html

 

[prototype]

Pakistan-srilanka ties another nightmare for India. The thread owner is happy about it. He is a Indian too.

We have good relations with many countries. The recent high profile visits of UK Prime minister, U.S president, French President Proves that. Does that automatically mean its a nightmare for pakistan. If you believe so, so be it.

first of all the thread owner is not he,actually thats she

If u carefully examine all of her post u will conclude that she is not at all even India,all her post is about bashing India,be it UNSC or Marina beach,DRDO or Varanasi blast's

@topic
Srilanka even improve their ties with Martian's,the reality is that they cannot defy India and will not openly stand against us,because they also share a good rapport with us,this is just a rumour fueled in this forum by some India haters that Srilankans at diplomatic and public level hate India

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

How Pak-Srilanka relationship is a nightmare?. More like a nuisance rather than a nightmare.

Its the OPs attempt to score some thanks .

Sri-Lanka is like any nation who"ll go after self-interests and balance all the regional players well.