Sri Lanka today said that it had ‘kindly declined’ the Indian governments offer to transfer two Sri Lankan military officers undergoing training in the Defence Services Staff Course (DSSC) in Wellington, India to another College in Andhra Pradesh.
The two officers returned to the island prematurely due to series of protests against them in Tamil Nadu.
“Due to some security concerns the Indian Government had offered to transfer these two officers from DSSC Wellington to Higher Defence Management Course (HDMC) in the College of Defence Management, Secundrabad, Andhra Pradesh. The Sri Lankan authorities whilst appreciating this offer kindly declined as it was observed that the HDMC was not in line with the initial purpose of sending these two officers for training in India,” military Spokesman Brigadier RuwanWanigasooriya said in a statement.
He said higher Defence Management Course normally followed by senior officers in the rank of Colonel is a higher course in scope.
Hence, the Sri Lankan Government made a request to withdraw the two officers from DSSC course and accordingly they returned to the island this morning, he said.
Further, it is reiterated that this withdrawal does not in any way hamper the growing relationship and training partnership between the Armed Forces of India and Sri Lanka.
