‘Start of cooperation’: Sri Lanka President thanks India for Dornier plane

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe thanked India for gifting a Dornier maritime surveillance plane to the island nation on Monday. The plane will improve Sri Lankan Navy’s maritime surveillance capabilities and bolster the India-Sri Lanka defence ties.

“This is the start of cooperation between our Air force, Navy and Indian Navy in maritime surveillance,” Wickremesinghe stated.

President Wickremesinghe additional stated that historical past has introduced each nations collectively like two sides of the identical coin and the 2 nations should forge forward collectively.

Vice Chief of Indian Navy Vice Admiral S N Ghormade, who’s on a two-day go to to the nation, accompanied by Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Gopal Baglay, handed over the maritime surveillance plane to the Sri Lanka Navy on the Sri Lanka Air Force base in Katunayake, adjoining the Colombo worldwide airport.

READ | Chinese ‘spy’ ship to dock at Sri Lanka port regardless of India’s considerations

The plane shall be flown and maintained solely by 15 Sri Lanka Airforce crew who have been particularly educated in India for 4 months.

The crew consists of pilots, observers, engineering officers and technicians. They shall be supervised by the federal government of India technical crew connected to the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF).

The crew would undertake complete supervision of plane, airframe, plane assist tools, floor assist tools, and related paperwork and would verify the serviceability of all of the property.

Dornier was handed over to Sri Lanka a day earlier than a high-tech Chinese missile and satellite tv for pc monitoring ship docks on the island nation’s Hambantota port, regardless of India’s considerations.

The ship was initially scheduled to reach on the port on August 11 however its arrival was delayed in absence of permission by the Sri Lankan authorities.

Sri Lanka had requested China to defer the go to amid India’s considerations over it. On Saturday, Colombo granted the port entry to the vessel from August 16 to August 22.

There have been apprehensions in New Delhi about the potential for the vessel’s monitoring techniques trying to listen in on Indian installations whereas being on its solution to the Sri Lankan port.

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