Maldives, India, Sri Lanka conclude NSA level meeting on maritime security cooperation

Maldives, India and Sri Lanka have agreed to communicate on illegal maritime activities and hold trainings and capacity building, during the third National Security Advisor-level Trilateral Meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation between the three countries held on Thursday and Friday.

Hosted by India, the meetings in New Delhi were led by India’s National Security Advisor Shri Shivshankar Menon. Minister of Defence and National Security Colonel (Rtd) Mohamed Nazim headed the Maldives delegation and the Sri Lankan delegation was led by Secretary Defence and Urban Development Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The three countries agreed on initiatives to enhance Maritime Domain Awareness, conduct trainings and capacity building initiatives in areas of Maritime Domain Awareness, search and rescue, and oil pollution response, and hold joint activities including trilateral exercises, maintain lines of communication on illegal maritime activities, formulate marine oil pollution response contingency plans and cooperate on in legal and policy issues related to piracy.

During the third NSA-Level meeting, the participants reviewed and expressed satisfaction over the progress in the implementation of various activities in the identified areas.

New areas of cooperation including Hydrography; training in visit, board, search and seizure operations; training on board Indian Sail Training Ships; exchanges between think tanks; and joint participation in adventure activities were also discussed.

The participants directed the working and technical level groups to meet at an early date to accelerate the implementation of joint activities and work out a program of cooperation in the new areas.

Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) revealed that during Defence Minister Nazim’s meeting with Indian Defence Minister A. K. Antony, the Indian Minsiter had assured to provide the necessary future military support to the Maldives.