Sri Lankan Air Force commander Air Marshal Bandu Edirisinghe and Myanmar Air Force Brigadier General Zaw Win Tun exchange mementos at Air Force Headquarters on 7 October. Photograph: Sri Lanka Air Force
The Sri Lankan Air Force has hosted a delegation from Myanmar’s air force for talks on cooperation between the two militaries, as the Myanmar military continues to carry out airstrikes on civilians and faces genocide proceedings over the Rohingya.
A five-member delegation led by Brigadier General Zaw Win Tun, commander of the Myanmar Air Force’s Southern Air Command, called on the Sri Lankan Air Force commander, Air Marshal Bandu Edirisinghe, at Air Force Headquarters on 7 October, according to the Sri Lankan Air Force . The delegation was in Sri Lanka for the Myanmar–Sri Lanka Air Force Air Staff Talks and a senior officers’ exchange programme.
The Sri Lankan Air Force said the two sides held “cordial discussions on matters of mutual interest” and that the meeting “reinforced the long-standing professional relationship between the two air forces”.
Edirisinghe meets the Myanmar Air Force delegation at Air Force Headquarters. Photograph: Sri Lanka Air Force
Days earlier, a three-member Myanmar Air Force medical team took part in an exchange programme at the Sri Lankan Air Force hospital in Ratmalana from 28 September to 1 October, covering aircrew selection, aeromedical evacuation, psychological screening of aircrew and nutrition. The Sri Lankan Air Force said the programme followed the first air staff talks between the two forces.
Myanmar Air Force medical officers with Sri Lankan Air Force staff at the end of the exchange programme in Ratmalana. Photograph: Sri Lanka Air Force
Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup in 2021 and has since carried out repeated airstrikes on civilians. Last month, a military airstrike on a crowded market in Rakhine State killed more than 50 people, according to UN human rights officials, as the United States opened direct talks with the generals .
The International Court of Justice heard the case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya in January, and the International Criminal Court prosecutor has applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing, who became president in April after military-run elections.
The Sri Lankan Air Force is itself accused of bombing civilians, hospitals and declared no-fire zones in the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009 - in crimes since labelled a genocide - and has continued to hold exercises with foreign militaries .
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