Sri Lanka Navy will receive training in the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by the Japanese. Authoritative sources said that though nothing has been finalised yet, in terms of the Official Security Assistance (OSA) programme, finalised during President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s visit, the country would benefit from this initiative.
According to the Japanese Embassy here, under the OSA programme two types of state-of-the-art Japanese-made UAVs would be provided for monitoring, surveillance and disaster relief. The project is expected to contribute to enhancing security of Sri Lanka, maintaining and strengthening regional stability, the Japanese Embassy said.
Japan launched OSA in April 2023 in line with a strategic change of its security policy meant to enhance the overall defence capabilities of the country as well as like-minded countries, according to Japanese reports. NATO ally Japan is one of the four members of Quad, with US, India and Australia being the other members.
During the war against the LTTE that was brought to a successful conclusion in May 2009, the Air Force operated UAVs procured from Israel. Although the Navy has the capacity to operate UAVs, there hadn’t been an initiative similar to the one offered by Japan, sources said.
Others asserted that the inclusion of Sri Lanka in the OSA programme meant that Tokyo wanted to expand the Comprehensive Partnership with Sri Lanka, finalised in October 2015 during the Yahapalana government.
According to the Japanese Embassy the first OSA project for Sri Lanka, underscored that bilateral cooperation in security, has entered a new phase.
“Launched in 2023, OSA is a new grant aid cooperation framework of Japan to strengthen the security and deterrence capabilities of like-minded countries, ” the Embassy said.
East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Tonga are the latest recipients of assistance through OSA. Earlier, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, and the Philippines had received assistance.
By Shamindra Ferdinando