Indian Army Chief's visit 'matter of concern', says PMK chief Ramadoss

Chennai: A day after Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag left for Sri Lanka to review bilateral defence ties, PMK chief Ramadoss on Monday said the visit was a “matter of concern” and wanted the Centre to declare a policy that it would never provide arms and military aid to the island nation. On Sunday, the Army Chief embarked on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka during which he would review the bilateral defence ties and discuss new avenues of cooperation. Referring to the visit, Ramadoss said there was “nothing wrong” in the army chief of a country travelling to another country to deliberate military cooperation. [caption id=“attachment_2527120” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] “However, the country of his travel (Sri Lanka) and the intention of his visit is a matter of concern,” he said. He claimed that the main reason for Suhag’s travel was to “give Lanka new war planes, arms, tanks and anti-aircraft weapons system.” “There is no doubt that such weaponry would be only used to annihilate Tamils. Thousands of reasons can be listed to deny supply of weaponry to Sri Lanka,” he alleged. Hence, Ramadoss said the central government should give up the “decision to give Sri Lanka weaponry and also declare that it would never give arms and military aid to that country as its policy.” An official statement had yesterday said among the countries of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), Sri Lanka was the “most important partner and one of our most important neighbours.” PTI