Defence Dialogue :

Making a case for Indo-Lanka naval ties

by B.C Sharma

India may help Sri Lanka acquire more Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). This emerged from the Third Defence Dialogue between the two countries, held in New Delhi from September 21-22.

Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi presents a memento to Indian Minister of State for Defence, Rao Inderjit Singh Defence Ministry

A media release from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence said that among other subjects, "assistance to the Sri Lanka Navy on the supply of Off-Shore Patrol Vessels was taken up for discussion." India has already supplied two OPVs to the neighbouring island, which played a key role in the destruction of the LTTE' 'floating armories' during the 2006-2009 war.

For the first time in the bilateral Defence Dialogue series, the Sri Lankan delegation had as among its members, the Army Commander, A.W.J.C.de Silva, the Eastern Naval Commander, Rear Admiral N.B.J.Rosayro, and Air Vice Marshal C.R.Gurusinghe, besides the Defence Secretary, Karunasena Hettiarachchi.

Although there was no meeting with the Indian Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, the Sri Lankan delegation met the Minister of State for Defence, Rao Inderjit Singh, and the National Security Advisor, the powerful Ajit Doval. The Dialogue however was mainly between Indian Defence Secretary G.Mohan Kumar and his Sri Lankan counterpart, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, according to top New Delhi-based sources.

Naval ties

Being an island in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is looked upon by India as a country with which it should have naval ties, primarily. This is one of the key reasons for the Defence Advisor attached to the Indian High Commission in Colombo invariably being a naval officer.

It was only recently, that an army officer was posted to assist him in view of the increasing cooperation between the armies of the two countries. In this context, it is no wonder that the Third Defence Dialogue discussed Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and the supply of OPVs.

The first Defence Dialogue took place in 2012, but the Trilateral Maritime Cooperation talks - involving India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives - began a year earlier. Not surprisingly, India's cooperation with the Sri Lankan Armed Forces during Eelam War IV had a predominant naval content.

The second Defence Dialogue was to be held in Colombo in March 2013, but it was cancelled without assigning any reason. According to political circles, however, the cancellation was due to opposition in Tamil Nadu, which was highly agitated over the Indian Government's soft stand on the war crimes issue that was being discussed at the March session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.

The second Defence Dialogue was held in October 2014, with the Indian and the Sri Lankan delegations being led by their respective Defence Secretaries, R.K.Mathur and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Clearly impressed with the way the Sri Lankan Armed Forces crushed the Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - the world's most lethal terrorist group - Mathur told President Mahinda Rajapaksa: "There are lots of things we also would like to learn from Sri Lanka."

Mathur and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa agreed to have an exchange of guest lecturers on a long terms basis, on military science and warfare, especially tackling terrorists. The one-way traffic of Sri Lankan officers going to India for training, with none from India coming to Sri Lanka, was to be replaced by a two-way flow. Earlier, in 2012, the Indian Army Chief, Gen.Bikram Singh, had visited Sri Lanka and said that he would send Indian officers to attend courses here.

Trilateral maritime cooperation

Predating the Defence Dialogue was Trilateral Maritime Security Cooperation (TMSC) between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

The first meeting of the trilateral was held in 2010, a year after Eelam War IV ended. According to the New Delhi- based maritime strategy scholar T.C.Karthikheyan, India started off with trilateral rather than bilateral cooperation with Sri Lanka due to sensitivities in Tamil Nadu.

The other reason, according to a former National Security Advisor, was that India was keen that Sri Lanka should be made a part of a regional group effort to ensure maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), instead of allowing it to go the whole hog with China.

As India feared, Sri Lanka had begun close economic and strategic cooperation with China after the end of the war against the LTTE in May 2009. In India's eyes, Sri Lanka's Chinese aided port building projects had long-term strategic implications for it.

Suspicions

In the Trilateral meetings, a lot of attention was given to Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA); use of the Indian Long Range Identification and Data Centre; use of the Merchant Shipping Information System and Sharing the Automatic Identification System data in a trilateral format. India was to serve as the nodal point as well as the technology and training provider.

Sri Lanka was aware of the Indian bid to take over the function of providing maritime security this side of the Indian Ocean. In one of the earliest conferences, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that the system devised by India stemmed from suspicions about China's aims in the region, a fear shared by the Americans.

Rajapaksa suggested that to modify Indian influence and prevent China and other countries -namely Pakistan - looking at the grouping as an alliance serving the Indian interest, other countries should be invited to participate as Observers. India would of course have none of this unless it fits in with its political aims.

India had itself expanded its network having roped in Mauritius and Seychelles. According to defence expert Dr. C . Raja Mohan, India had given eight radars each to Mauritius and Seychelles; six to Sri Lanka and ten to the Maldives. It has given a Dornier aircraft and an OPV to Mauritius.

Since China is already entrenched in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, it is keen that the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of these countries should be protected with exclusive Indian help.

"India considers the Indian Ocean as its strategic turf," observers Prof. S. D.Muni, a Distinguished Fellow at the New Delhi-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Analyses (IDSA), onetime Special Envoy to Southeast Asian countries on UN Security Council Reforms (2005-06) and former ambassador to Lao and Nepal.

"Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India will use its strengths in the Indian Ocean Region and take on the attendant responsibilities," asserts Dr.Raja Mohan, a former defence correspondent with The Hindu.a