The South and Southeast Asian Nations (SASEAN) Defence Chiefs’ Dialogue 2014 of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, organized by the Office of the Chief of Defence Staff, opened its three-day sessions for deliberations Thursday (27) morning at The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo.
Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Secretary Defence and Urban Development, the conceptual heavyweight behind the realization of the project, delivered the inaugural keynote address, in which he underlined the importance of an assembly of this nature.
President’s Secretary, Mr Lalith Weerathunga, Secretary to Ministry of Law and Order, Dr Mahinda Balasuriya, Additional Secretary to Ministry of Defence, Mr S. Hettiarachchi, Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, Commander of the Army, Commanders of the Sri Lanka Navy and Air Force, Inspector General of Police, Major General (Retd) Palitha Fernando, Military Liaison Officer and other invitees graced the inaugural ceremony.
Mr Anatoly Antonov, Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, General Rashad Mahmood of Pakistan Army, General Zulkifeli Mohd Zin, Chief of Malaysian Defence Force, Lieutenant General Chowdhury Hasan Sarwady of Bangladesh Army, Major General Vu Tien Trong of Vietnam Army, Lieutenant General Wang Ning of People’s Liberation Army of China, Major General Dato Paduka Seri of Brunei Army, Air Marshal P.P Reddy of Indian Air Force, Major General Ahmed Shiyam of Maldives Army and General Jagath Jayasuriya, Chief of Defence Staff are among those major contributors to the sessions.
The SASEAN Defence Chiefs’ Dialogue 2014 during the three-day deliberations will focus on ‘Security Issues in the Region’, ‘Threat Perception’, ‘Maritime Security’ and ‘Way Forward’ in relation to the formation of the organization, impact of extremism, sectarianism, and insurgency propagated within and outside the region, ensuring stability in the region in facing up to air, land and maritime territorial disputes, military modernization and arms race, protection of territorial waters, exclusive economic zone and mutual cooperation, preventing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in international waters, combined search and rescue operations, anti piracy operations, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking, maritime environmental issues, combined maritime exercises and SASEAN formation and way forward.
General Jagath Jayasuriya, Chief of Defence Staff delivered the welcome speech.
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