Defence minister attends trilateral maritime meeting in Sri Lanka

Defence Minister Mariya Didi took part in the high-level trilateral maritime dialogue between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives on Saturday.

The fourth National Security Adviser (NSA) level Trilateral Meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation was hosted by Sri Lanka from 27-28 November.

National Security Advisor of India Ajit Doval and the Secretary at the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence Major Gen. (Rtd.) Kamal Guanaratne participated in the meeting, while Mauritius and Seychelles represented by senior government officials virtually as observers.

According to the joint statement released afterwards, past deliberations “helped the three countries in improving close coordination in maritime security of the region”.

While Maldives, Sri Lanka and India launched the trilateral maritime dialogue in 2011, the last one was held in New Delhi in 2014.

Highlighting the significance of the forum “for promoting meaningful cooperation in the Indian Ocean region on common issues pertaining to maritime security”, the statement noted that the three countries “took stock of the current maritime security environment in the region and discussed mutual cooperation areas” including maritime domain awareness, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, joint exercises, capacity building, maritime security and threats, marine pollution and maritime underwater heritage.

The statement highlighted that the countries also agreed “to further strengthen cooperation in dealing with these challenges, to ensure peace and security in the region for common benefit”.

The three nations also exchanged views on common security threats and agreed “to broad base cooperation by expanding the scope to improve intelligence sharing and include these issues like terrorism, radicalization, extremism, drugs, arms and human trafficking, money laundering, cyber security and effect of climate change on maritime environment”.

The head of the delegations agreed to meet regularly to ensure the timely implementation of the decisions taken at the trilateral meeting on maritime security cooperation. Deputy NSA level working group meetings are to be held biannually, for cooperation at an operational level.

While Defence Minister Mariya traveled to Sri Lanka to attend the meeting, she met with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapksa on Saturday and discussed on strengthening regional cooperation to combat terrorism, extremism and drugs in the region.