Asia-Pacific Army Chiefs to make Sri Lanka a case study

Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander of the Army during his participation in the recent 6th Pacific Armies Chiefs’ Conference (PACC VI) in Japan held a record thirteen bilateral discussions with participating Chiefs of Armies and two representatives.

The Sixth Pacific Armies Chiefs’ Conference, held in Tokyo, Japan from August 24 to 27 was co-hosted by the USA and Japan.

It was attended by 22 Army Chiefs from Asia Pacific countries, including Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the US.

‘The Role That Land Forces Should Play in Military Civic Cooperation in Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Assistance Operations’ was the major theme for this year’s conference.

Adding a new dimension, many participating Army Chiefs after taking stock of the successful completion of the Vanni humanitarian operations expressed their keen interest in future military academia on Sri Lanka as a case study.

They expressed their desire to send high level military groups to Sri Lanka for this purpose. Those inquisitive military chiefs also received a detailed account of the conduct of insurgency operations and the victory achieved over LTTE terrorism from the visiting Commander of the Sri Lanka Army.

During his elaborate discussions and also in response to queries, Lt. General Jayasuriya pointed out the political leadership given by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa contributed largely to the success of humanitarian operations that were launched to salvage trapped civilians in the Vanni.

Lieutenant General Jayasuriya had also a separate round of discussions with the USA Pacific Army Commander during the conference.