|
India offers to help Sri Lanka redesign air-defence capabilities
New Delhi told visiting Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga it is willing to consider all proposals from Colombo, including training Sri Lankan personnel or guidance and advice in designing air defences, the Indian Express daily reported. Colombo will send a team of senior defence officials to India to discuss the technical details, it said. The offer was made during talks in New Delhi late Thursday between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kumaratunga, who is on a three day-visit to India. Kumaratunga's government charges that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have built an airstrip in the north and possess at least two light aircraft. European truce monitors say they have seen the airstrip from the air but have been denied access by the rebels to investigate allegations they have aircraft. "Those two aircraft, if they have any, represent a very serious threat," Monitoring Mission chief Hagrup Haukland said last week, adding that the issue could re-ignite the war between the Tigers and government troops. India, which once armed and trained the Tigers, warned last month that they were acquiring aircraft. "We are concerned about the LTTE having built an airstrip and having two aeroplanes, and there's news about more coming," India's Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said. The Indian Express, quoting unnamed sources, said India would also help provide Sri Lanka, which has focused more on maritime than air security, with radars to improve its air-space coverage. Posted by: Steve White 2005-06-04 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=120749 |