Chinese Defence Minister’s Visit To Sri Lanka: An Indian Perspective
By R Hariharan -September 11, 2012
Col. R. Hariharan
China’s Defence Minister General Liang Guanglie’s visited Sri Lanka for five days from August 29, 2012. The first-ever visit by a Chinese defence minister to Sri Lanka with an entourage of 23 members indicates the ever increasing Chinese interest in the island nation.
The defence minister called upon President Rajapaksa and met with the Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He also visited the Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) and and the Defence Service College (DSC) – a national school established for children of defence services and police personnel. Even there the defence minister’s visit was limited to interaction with military personnel only. There was no press meet organised for the visiting delegation. Evidently there was a conscious effort to keep the visit at a low key. It would be charitable to think that this was done as both sides were mindful of India’s sensitivities to Chinese overtures in Sri Lanka. But it would probably accurate to say that the Chinese defence minister did not want the Colombo visit to be overplayed as New Delhi was his next stop.
General Liang’s meeting with the President was only briefly reported in official release with traditional averment to peace and friendship between the two countries. On the Chinese visitor’s meeting with Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapksa, Sri Lanka defence ministry said Sri Lanka and China had sought to strengthen their military ties. The Chinese press release was a little more detailed. It quoted General Liang as saying that political trust between the two countries had deepened with the rapid expansion of exchanges and cooperation in various fields. He expressed the hope that the two sides would continue to work hard to maintain the close and friendly relations and strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field of non- traditional security and improve the ability to respond to crisis together, so as contribute to regional peace, stability and development(emphasis added).
Presumably the reference to non-traditional security and responding to crisis together was related to international counter-terrorism cooperation that China had been promoting for some time. This was mooted in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and joint exercises have been carried out. Probably China would like to promote similar joint efforts with South Asian nations. This is evidenced by the Chinese military participation in the Sri Lanka joint services exercise “Cormorant III” from September 10 to 25 in Eastern Vakarai in Eastern Province. In this exercise along with Sri Lanka troops, Chinese troops would be participating side by side with military personnel from Bangladesh,Pakistan and Maldives.
