UK High Commission clarifies removal of Defence Attache

The withdrawal of the Defence Attache position from the High Commission of the United Kingdom in Colombo was due to the review of the UK government's defence adviser network in its diplomatic missions, the UK High Commission in Colombo says in a statement clarifying the interview with High Commissioner James Dauris published in the Sunday Observer last week.

The High Commission statement says that in the interview, headlined "Great expectations", High Commissioner Dauris response to a question was as follows:

"In 2009, we had a review of our defence advisers network around the world. A number of changes were made and one of that was to stop having a resident defence advisor here.

I haven't seen the full rationale for that move, but no doubt account was taken of the current political situation in Sri Lanka."