The Australian warship HMAS Melbourne arrived at the Colombo Port over the weekend (Jan. 22) on a week-long visit aimed at strengthening bi-lateral ties.
The visit by one of the Royal Australian Navy’s four Adelaide Class guided missile frigates comes in the wake of the two countries strengthening their efforts to curb illegal immigrants.
Senior Sri Lankan and Australian officials say their working relationship couldn’t have been better with Australia stationing personnel in Colombo tasked with handling ‘illegals’ issue.
Recently Australian High Commissioner in Colombo Ms. Kathy Klugman thanked former Navy Chief Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe for thwarting attempts to launch refugee boats. HC Klugman told The Island that the two countries had closely co-operated on that issue and Australia was certain there had not been any boats launched from Sri Lanka for over a year.
Government sources said that Admiral Samarasinghe would be Sri Lanka’s next High Commissioner to Australia.
Since the conclusion of the war in May, Australia has tightened its immigration policy on Sri Lankans using Indonesia to reach the Australian waters.
Australia moved swiftly to improve relations with Colombo immediately after people of some SAARC countries were arrested in Sri Lanka while trying to use the country as a staging point to reach Australia. (SF)
The Island
