India and Sri Lanka identify new opportunities in defence cooperation

Indian High Commissioner, Santhosh Jha

State Minister of Defence 

Premitha Bandara Tennakoon

The Indian High Commission yesterday held a seminar on Defence Cooperation with the theme “Identifying new opportunities and forging new bonds” to promote Indian Made Defence equipment and explore avenues for collaboration in defence production at Taj Samudra, Colombo. 

State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon was the Chief Guest. 

High Commissioner of India, Santosh Jha participated in the event with the Indian delegation led by Additional Secretary (Defence Production), Ministry of Defence, Government of India Anurag Bajpai. The delegation comprised representatives from Indian Defence companies including Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Bharat Electronics Ltd. Zen Technologies, SSS Defence, Bharat Forge, Big Bang Boom Solutions, AWEL, AVNL, Mahindra Defence, Sager Defence and TATA Advances System Ltd. From the Sri Lankan side, Chief of Defence Staff, Commander of Sri Lanka Navy, Commander of Sri Lanka Air Force and other senior officers from Sri Lankan Armed Forces, Police and Special Task Force graced the event, as also representatives of leading Sri Lankan business conglomerates.

High Commissioner Jha underlined the increasing diversification of India-Sri Lanka bilateral cooperation across domains, including in security and defence matters. He emphasised that because of geography, the security of India and Sri Lanka is interlinked and intertwined. India’s defence exports today stand at nearly $ 2.6 billion, a ten-fold increase over the past five years. High Commissioner stated that the seminar was another platform to explore ways of extending India’s increasing capabilities in the defence sector to Sri Lanka.

State Minister of Defence Tennakoon lauded the growth of Indian defence industry, and said that the seminar would facilitate collaboration between two countries contributing to stable Indian Ocean Region. The State Minister stated that the procurement of cost effective and tailor made products from India in the last decade had helped protect Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He emphasised that collaboration and joint R&D with Indian defence industries would also lead to country’s economic revival. The State Minister also thanked Government of India for standing by Sri Lanka in the times of crisis.

Addressing the gathering Additional Secretary (DP), Shri Anurag Bajpai described Sri Lanka as India’s priority partner and reassured that India stands committed towards ensuring capacity and capability building of Sri Lanka Armed Forces as part of PM Modi’s vision of SAGAR (Security and And Growth for All in the Region). He highlighted the common security challenges faced in the Indian Ocean Region and called for enhanced collaboration to create a safer environment. 

He shared Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’s, self-reliant India’s upward trajectory in establishing robust RandD and indigenous manufacturing ecosystems, while fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.

A similar Defence Seminar cum Exhibition was previously conducted on 7 June 2023 in Sri Lanka. 

Sri Lanka Armed forces have been successfully operating a range of Indian defence equipment like L-70 guns, Indra Radar, Offshore Patrol Vessels and Army training simulators. More recently the GoI has committed supply of Floating Dock, Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and Dornier aircraft which would ensure capacity building of Sri Lanka Armed Forces.