New National Defence College opened in Colombo 3
View(s):The new National Defence College (NDC) was declared open on Thursday by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This college was established to provide education in security and strategic studies for executive officials of the three forces and the Police.
The NDC was erected at the ‘Mumtas Mahal’ building near Galle road in Colombo 03; this land belongs to the Defence Ministry. Following the opening of the college’s main building, President Rajapaksa also checked on the facilities provided at the NDC. He also declared open the official website.
The syllabus committee comprises experts from the University of Colombo, Sir John Kotelawala Defence Universityand the Australian Defence Training College. American and Pakistani defence experts too will be among the experts in future.
The Chinese government has contributed to provide an auditorium for the NDC, while the Pakistan government has built a library and the Australian government and the three forces have provided books for the library.
The initial course began on Friday and will end in August 2022, a period of ten months. Around 27 tri-force officials and four Police officers have been selected for the programme.
In his welcome Speech, NDC Commandant Major General Amal Karunasekara (Rtd), outlined how this novel platform for civil-military cooperation came into being and how it would bring all officials under one roof for critical and strategic analysis to address national security issues and strategic statecraft. He said degree courses would be held for both security and public officials and invited service personnel of foreign countries to attend as well.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pointed out that establishing the NDC was a long time need. Earlier senior Army officials had to search for vacancies in foreign institutes to learn strategic studies. Even though friendly nations granted courses to few officials, many did not get that chance. Therefore establishing of the NDC was a great achievement, the President said.
The High Commissioners of India and Bangladesh, Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan, the Ambassador for the People’s Republic of China, Defence attaches of several embassies and a group of university lecturers were also present at the event.
President Secretary P.B. Jayasundara, President’s Principal Adviser Lalith Weeratunge, Foreign Ministry Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage, Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne, Public Security Secretary K. J. Alwis, Defence Staff Chief General Shavendra de Silva, the Navy and Air Force Commanders, the Inspector General of Police, and KDU’s Vice Chancellor also graced the event.