Sri Lanka navy chief urges common approach to maritime security

May 21, 2009 (LBO) - Indian Ocean navies need to co-operate better to ensure adequate responses to challenges ranging from terrorism to natural disasters, Sri Lankan navy commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda said.







It would be based on a consensual and co-operative approach to find remedies for regional maritime security concerns.

"This forum will be a springboard to foster maritime co-operation among the littoral states," Karannagoda said.

"The threats facing present day law abiding states are not arising from territorial or idealogical ambitions of other nation states," he told the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) that began in Colombo Thursday.

"They are, instead, a bewildering variety of manifestations of malevolent non-state entities.

"To these problems must be added natural disasters and man-made catastrophes such as cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis and the very real threat of widespread coastal inundation caused by global warming.

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Navy officers of 31 countries in or around the Indian Ocean are taking part in the two-day symposium of the IONS, a maritime security co-operation initiative that was launched by India last year.

The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium als