Sirisena showcases military-to-military relationship with China

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2018, 11:33 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on Saturday gave prominence to a photo session with Chinese military officers and Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan staging a grand opening ceremony to a Chinese military constructed auditorium at Diyatalawa military academy of genocidal Sri Lanka. The publicity stunt was aimed at passing a message to India and the West, observers in Colombo said. Mr Sirisena was using the opportunity in an attempt to balance out his setback in the constitutional with the military relation stunt with China, the observers said adding that Sirisena, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the SL military, was also passing a warning signal to the USA and India. Similarly, Chinese were giving a message by appointing Major General Shen Jun to lead their military delegation to the event, a diplomatic source in Colombo told TamilNet.

Mr Sirisena was talking of training a military to face a multitude of challenges from foreign forces and that those were not like the situation faced by the SL military in the past.

Sirisena was making an indirect reference to Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue (QSD, also known as the Quad), which is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan and Australia, UNP circles aligned with the West said.

By giving prominence to this event, Sirisena was reminding the global powers that he is the Commander-in-Chief of the SL military. If military interests matter, the powers should be dealing with him and not with Ranil Wickramasinghe was the message, independent observers in Colombo said.



Major General (retd.) Jagath Jayasuriya, a former genocidaire commander, who is wanted for war-crimes committed during the final onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009, was also accompanying SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. Last year, Colombo hurriedly withdrew him from his Ambassador post in Brazil as human rights groups were preparing to file lawsuits against him in Brazil and Colombia.

In the meantime, China's Defence Ministry website noted that the construction of the building was “China's first military construction project to assist Sri Lanka”.

The auditorium complex, constructed in the shape of a lotus, was designed in 2014 and built by the Chinese People's Liberation Army as a gift to the military of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka.

“The blooming lotus and the evergreen mountains witness the lasting brotherhood and friendship between China and Sri Lanka,” Chinese Ambassador said at the occasion.



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