Rare Honour for Sri Lanka at the Historical World Forum of Rulers of Seas

19th of the Biennial Sea Power Symposium conducted by the United States Navy at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island was held from 6th to 9th October 2009 under the patronage of the Chief of the United States Navy, Admiral Gary Roughead. This world famous prestigious gathering of rulers of the seas was attended by 96 Heads of Navies and Naval Delegates of 20 countries which incidentally is the largest ever gathering of Chiefs of Navies under one roof in the world history.

“Connecting Navies, Building Partnerships” was the theme of the symposium which included three Panels titled, “Bridging Regional Maritime Domain Awareness, Initiatives in Support of Partnerships”, “Collaboration Among Navies Maritime Domain Awareness in Practice” and “Leveraging Cooperative Effort to Enhance Maritime Security Operations”.

Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, the Commander of the Navy was invited by the United States Navy Chief, Admiral Roughead to participate at the above symposium. Admiral Samarasinghe who was incidentally a distinguished graduate of the same Naval War College having attended the Naval Staff Course in 1991 was further recognized and honoured when he was invited by the United States Navy Chief to address in the final Panel.

This is the first time that such a rare honour has been bestowed to Sri Lanka in general and the Sri Lanka Navy in particular. Admiral Samarasinghe’s address has earned high praise by the Chief of the United States Navy and all others present at the symposium where he capsulated the way ahead for ‘Leveraging Cooperative Effort to Enhance Maritime Security Operations’ by using seven step approach coming out of his own award winning thesis on “Strategy to Counter Maritime Terrorism”, written in 2005 at the National Defence College, New Delhi, India.

All members of the Symposium unanimously agreed to forward and support Admiral Samarasinghe’s recommendation of his address to the United Nations in revising the United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea.

He also made use of this opportunity to have discussions with Naval Chiefs from Bangladesh, United Kingdom, United States, Israel, Ecuador, Indonesia, Denmark, Singapore, India, Nigeria, Australia, Sweden, Maldives, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Brazil, France, Korea, Japan and Norway.

Captain P. M. Wickramasinghe the current Commanding Officer of SLNS Nandimithra (Fast Missile Vessel) also participated at the Symposium. Vice Admiral Samarasinghe was accompanied by his wife Malathie Samarasinghe who participated in the Naval Chiefs Spouses programme, conducted concurrently.

During the visit Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, on the directives of Secretary Defence had bilateral discussions with senior officers of the US Defence Department at the Pentagon in Washington. He also had deliberations with peace keeping and field support officials of the United Nations. The meetings were arranged by H E Jaliya Wickramasuriya, the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States. Dr. Palith Kohona, the permanent representative of Sri Lanka to the UN was also present at the meetings.