NEW DELHI: After about six years, India has resumed its defence ties with Sri Lanka with the commissioning of two military radars to secure the island-nation against low-level aerial attacks.

The decision to gift the indigenously made Indra radars was made late last year following reports that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was scouting the global arms market for air assets. At present, the LTTE is believed to possess a couple of micro light aircraft. It had also developed two airstrips in the area under its control.

The last time India provided military capabilities to Sri Lanka was in 2000, when it gifted a fast attack craft, to help maintain sea dominance in general and check LTTE activities in particular.

Confirming the installation of the radars, non-military sources said the gift fell under the category of "defensive and non-lethal equipment" and was in line with India's policy to help the militaries of neighbouring countries to counter threats from non-state actors.

Similar assistance

The sources said India recently gifted a war ship to the Maldives to patrol its island territories more effectively. Similar assistance was being provided or would be given to other neighbouring countries such as Seychelles, the Mauritius and Myanmar. Radars that could locate artillery and mortar gun positions across the border were the first Government-to-Government sale by the United States to India after sanctions were lifted in 2000. Internationally, even Japan was considering lifting its 60-year-old ban on military sales by gifting frigates stripped of their weaponry to some South-East Asian countries to help counter threats from pirates and poachers.

The decision to gift the radars was taken on the eve of Sri Lankan President Mahendra Rajapakse's maiden visit to India in December last but was not disclosed by the defence establishment. In response to a query, however, Defence Ministry sources confirmed the transfer of the radars. India too is inducting Indra radars under the Air Defence Ground Environment System plan to improve low-level detection capability especially in peninsular India.

India hastened to provide the radars after Pakistan began showing interest in improving Sri Lanka's aerial detection capabilities. The offer was first made during the former External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh's visit to Colombo over a year ago.

India had generally refrained from extending military assistance to Sri Lanka after stopping supplies in the mid-1980s. But sources were unable to say if the current transfer by the Indian Air Force would mark the beginning of the supply of more "non-lethal and defensive military" equipment to that country.

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