Sri Lanka needs Indian consensus to disclose the contents of the Defence Cooperation pact signed during the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said.
Sri Lanka signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India on Defence Cooperation, but President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government has yet to disclose the content of the pact.
The Defence pact was signed amid continuous Indian pressure to stop Chinese research vessels coming to Sri Lanka citing they are a threat to the security of the Indian Ocean region.
“On certain contents, we need mutual agreement to disclose the information,” Cabinet Spokesman Jayatissa, also the Minister of Media and Health, told reporters at the post-Cabinet media briefing on Tuesday, responding to a query on whether the defence pact had banned Chinese research vessels coming to Sri Lankan waters.
“In future, we will be submitting them to the parliament. It will take some time. Definitely in the future.”
“These are only Memorandum of Understanding. We will disclose about them to the parliament in the future. If it is difficult to wait, some of the information could be requested through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.”
When requested information by EconomyNext from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the designated RTI officer said the information about the Defence Cooperation “does not fall under the purview” of the Ministry.
Minister Jayatissa said the government has signed the MoUs with responsibility.
“They are not decisions taken by politicians collectively. Respective ministries, AG Departments, all the related institutions are consulted and discussed in length for months and some were amended some new clauses were added. Based on consensus after all these we have arrived at these MoUs,” he said.
“Next steps are going to be taken based on these MoUs. For some we need to establish mechanisms to implement the MoUs.”