SRI LANKA TO PROCEED WITH GLOBAL PEACE OPERATIONS

UNCLAS COLOMBO 002067 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/INS, SCA/RA (MILLER),PM/PPA (FEATHERSTONE), E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPKO MARR PREL MASS KSEP CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKA TO PROCEED WITH GLOBAL PEACE OPERATIONS INITIATIVE REF: A) STATE 169188 B) COLOMBO 1762 ¶1. (SBU) Following up on ref B, Defense Attache passed information to Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa during a previously scheduled meeting on November 3. DATT later received a call back from Defense Ministry expressing interest and asking for more information. Pol Chief received a request for more details and called at Foreign Affairs Ministry on December 12, after receipt of additional briefing materials from PM and PACOM. Pol Chief discussed the of the program with Director General C.A.H.M. Wijeratne (Bilateral Affairs - West) and Deputy Director Yasoda Gunasekera (UN/Multilateral Affairs) and gave them copies of draft Letter of Request (LOR) and PM PowerPoint presentation. ¶2. (SBU) MFA interlocutors thanked us for the information. Wijeratne asked us to confirm that joining the initiative did not entail a commitment to deploy to any specific PKO. He also pointed out that some Sri Lankan Army (SLA) specialized forces (communications, engineering, logistics and medical) were presently fully engaged in fighting Sri Lanka's two-decade-old ethnic conflict with the LTTE (Tamil Tigers). We indicated understanding for the current situation in the country. ¶3. (SBU) Our Sri Lankan counterparts told us that their government was highly interested in joining GPOI, and that the initiative had the support of both MFA and MoD. Wijeratne said the Government of Sri Lanka was not sure how to respond formally, since they had until now only received informal briefing materials. We proposed an exchange of letters between Ambassador and Foreign Minister as an expeditious way to take note of a mutual desire to proceed with the partnership. Our MFA interlocutors agreed this would be appropriate. ¶4. (SBU) Ambassador Blake sent a letter to Foreign Minister Samaraweera on December 13 based on ref a and the GPOI fact sheet provided by PM (copy e-mailed to SCA/INS). Post anticipates receiving a reply from the Foreign Minister within a few days. Pol section and Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) stand ready to facilitate visits by an assessment team and to help implement activities under GPOI within Sri Lanka, or elsewhere. BLAKE