23.6.2008
Rajat Pandit,TNN
NEW DELHI: India is likely to further
bolster military supplies to Sri Lanka, alarmed as it is
with the way Colombo continues to turn to China, as also
Pakistan to some degree, to obtain weapon systems and platforms.
The
arms supplies will be "largely" defensive in
nature, in keeping with the policy to supply mainly "non-lethal"
equipment to the island nation, said sources.
India
believes there cannot be a "military solution"
to the bloody ethnic strife in Sri Lanka, and is concomitantly
pushing for a dialogue process and devolution package
for the Tamils without disrupting the country’s
territorial integrity.
The
need for renewed political efforts was, once again, conveyed
to the Mahinda Rajapakse government by the high-level
delegation led by national security advisor M K Narayanan,
which also included foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon
and defence secretary Vijay Singh, to Colombo over the
weekend.
But
at the same time, India cannot ignore the deep inroads
being made into its own strategic backyard by China, which
is providing Sri Lanka with a wide array of "cheap"
arms and ammunition to bolster its ongoing battle with
LTTE.
"The
story of Myanmar is being repeated in Sri Lanka. China
is already all over the island nation, with a flurry of
arms deals, oil explorations and construction projects
like the Hambantota port," said a senior official.
Sources said the Narayanan delegation also expressed India’s
disquiet over Sri Lanka continuing to source weapon systems
in a major way from China and Pakistan.
Towards
this end, during the wide-ranging discussions on "mutual
concerns" with president Mahinda Rajapakse and defence
secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, among others, the Indian
delegation promised "all help" in the military
supplies, intelligence and training arenas.
Interestingly,
Narayanan has earlier publicly asked Sri Lanka to desist
from seeking arms from China or Pakistan, holding that
India as "the big power" in the region would
meet its legitimate defence requirements.
But,
due to political sensitivities in Tamil Nadu, India has
so far supplied "defensive" weapon systems to
Sri Lanka, ranging from 40mm L-70 anti-aircraft guns to
‘Indra’ low-flying detection radars, primarily
meant to thwart aerial strikes by LTTE.
Both
China and Pakistan have gleefully jumped into this vacuum
in recent times to quench Sri Lanka’s thirst for
weapons with "offensive capabilities", much
like what happened in Myanmar when India ignored the military
junta there in the 1990s. Colombo, for instance, has signed
a $37.6 million deal with the Beijing-based Poly Technologies
for a wide variety of arms, ammunition, mortars and bombs.
Sri
Lanka is also getting some Chinese Jian-7 fighters, JY-11
3D air surveillance radars, armoured personnel carriers,
T-56 (a copy of the famous AK-47) assault rifles, machine
guns, anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers
and missiles.
India,
on its part, apart from weapon deliveries, is conducting
"coordinated" naval patrolling with Sri Lanka
along the IMBL (international maritime boundary line)
to curb LTTE activity on the high seas.
Courtesy - Times
of India