The US Acting Secretary of Defence Patrick M.Shanahan is urging all countries to be pragmatic as a number of global challenges including international terrorism persist.
Participating at the Shangri La Dialogue held in Singapore, Shanahan said that the ‘deadly Easter Sunday bombings’ in Sri Lanka is an instance where the existence of terrorism came into light.
“No one nation can – or should – dominate the Indo-Pacific. A full range of transnational challenges persists: attacks by militants affiliated with or inspired by ISIS – as seen in Sri Lanka’s deadly Easter Sunday bombings – and other international terrorist groups, proliferation, narcotics, natural disasters, and disease. Now, we need to be pragmatic,” he said.
The Acting Secretary further said that the US government is devoting significant resources to strengthen defence relationships and the partners who pursue interoperability with the US as a part of a regional security network, will be benefitted from their ‘rapidly developing’ technologies.
Meanwhile, The U.S. Department of State’s Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper visited Sri Lanka from 2nd to 5th June to discuss the security cooperation and appraise the progress of US funded demining programs.
During his visit Cooper traveled to the Eastern province to observe demining operations and appreciated Sri Lanka’s goal of becoming mine- impact free by 2020.
Cooper also met with the Eastern Naval Command Rear Admiral Merril wickramasinghe and discussed on matters of mutual interests.
(Republic Next)