Russia enhances military cooperation with Sri Lanka

Enhanced cooperation is an indicator of Russia’s developing interest in deepening its ‘military diplomacy’ with nations in the IOR

New Delhi: The Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government which for over a year has been keen on deepening military relations with Sri Lanka, has successfully signed a new cooperation pact with Colombo.

On 3 January, Colombo accepted Moscow’s cooperation on counterterrorism, and intelligence sharing efforts. The enhanced cooperation can be seen as an indicator of Russia’s developing interest in deepening its ‘military diplomacy’ with nations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). 

The cooperation was signed in a meeting between the Russian Federation’s Land Forces Commander-in-Chief General Oleg Salyukov’s and Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Major General (Retd.) Kamal Gunaratne. Apart from cooperation on counterterrorism and intelligence support, the two nations also discussed ways to increase the air operation capabilities of the Sri Lankan Air Force. 

The Russian military officer who was in Colombo as part of his five-day-long official trip to the island nation, also extended an offer to avail more military training to Sri Lankan forces this year. 

According to a release, Moscow trained around 72 Sri Lankan cadets in 2019. The training included modules on jungle-warfare, de-mining and sniper shooting. Russia has requested Sri Lanka to increase the number of trainees in 2020, for the same training course. 

The seeds for the enhanced cooperation on counterterrorism, intelligence, and air operations signed, on 3 January, were reportedly sown on 26 June 2019. Recently, a Sri Lankan delegation met the Director of Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugaev on the sidelines of a military expo ‘Army-2019, held in Moscow.

A follow-up dialogue on the same lines was stuck in a meeting on 30 June 2019, in Moscow featuring Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Sri Lanka’s Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne. Reports also indicated that the Sri Lankan delegation featuring six key individuals from the armed forces and the government also held an introductory meeting with JSC Rosoboronexport Ltd, the Russian state mediator for exports of military products. 

For several years now, Russia has been attempting to strike a balance of power between several pairs of rival nations, including Sri Lanka, in the IOR through training, defense partnerships, intelligence exchange, arms support, disaster assistance, and other forms of military cooperation.

A virtual showcase of Russian ‘military diplomacy’ at work can be seen, as President Putin continues to hand billions of dollars’ worth of sophisticated weapons and technology to India, on the same hand expands anti-terrorist military cooperation with Pakistan to the naval realm, sells the S-400 Triumf interceptor-based air defense system to China, tempts Taiwan with it as well, while offering the Kalibr-armed Karakurt corvettes to Vietnam. 

The IOR is increasingly evolving in an arena of the ‘great game’ between the western powers. Thus, Moscow wanting to champion the game is cozying up to Sri Lanka, for its geographic positioning in the IOR, through ‘military diplomacy’.