Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Sampath Thuyacontha, met Russian Deputy Defence Minister Vasily Osmakov in Moscow during an official visit to the Russian Federation, Ada Derana reported.
Osmakov said the meeting took place on Tuesday (26 May), on the sidelines of the inaugural International Security Forum and the Annual International Meeting of High-Ranking Officials Responsible for Security Issues, held in Moscow from 26 to 29 May.
The two sides exchanged views on regional and global security challenges and reaffirmed the importance of continued defence cooperation between Sri Lanka and Russia, including in areas of training exchanges.
The discussions also covered matters related to former Sri Lankan military personnel currently serving in the Russian Federation, according to Newswire — the first time this issue has surfaced in the context of formal Sri Lanka–Russia defence talks. Authorities have not elaborated on the number of personnel involved or the nature of their service.
The talks add to a run of high-level Colombo-Moscow engagement this year. Thuyacontha, who recently represented Sri Lanka at the UN in New York on the Haiti mission and held defence talks in Vietnam, continues an active diplomatic schedule. On the economic track, Sri Lanka and Russia recently signed a railway cooperation MoU at the Kazan forum.
