Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Murphy | U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Weber, air national guard assistant to the Pacific Air...... read more read more
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U.S. Pacific Air Forces and Sri Lanka Air Force service members met at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for an annual Airman-to-Airman Talk from June 12th-14th, marking the first time a Sri Lanka delegation has visited Hawaii for this series of staff talks since 2019.
The three-day event gave PACAF and SLAF Airmen a chance to discuss common interests and concerns in the Indo-Pacific, culminating in the development of a future engagement strategy focused on various subject matter expert exchanges and humanitarian assistance exercises.
Sri Lanka’s nearest point to southern Asia is 18 miles and can be found in the northern Indian Ocean off the coast of India. According to the Department of State, sixty-thousand ships, including all U.S. Navy vessels passing between the 5th and 7th Fleets pass through each year. The island nation’s location makes Sri Lanka critical to the effort to ensure a continued free and open Indo-Pacific. It could also become a pivotal launching point to bring humanitarian aid and assistance to the region in the event of a future disaster relief effort.
“Strong partnerships like the one between our great air forces are what maintain stability in the region and what will continue to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Maj. Gen. Mark Weber, air national guard assistant to the PACAF commander.
Service members from logistics, civil engineering, aircraft maintenance, security forces, personnel and cyber security, among others, were present in the talks. These career fields added a wide level of diversity to information shared as well as culturally between the two nations.
In addition to almost every PACAF directorate, participants in the talks also included Headquarters Air Force, the Montana Air National Guard’ State Partnership Program, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and the 36th Contingency Support Group in Guam.
“We have been looking forward to coming to Hickam,” said Air Vice Marshal Vasu Bandu Edirisinghe, director of general training, Sri Lanka Air Force “When we are able to share our perspectives and experiences with each other, we move forward better equipped for future conflicts and responses. We value the Airman-to-Airman Talks forum to set the stage for our experts to exchange information and best-practices on a variety of topics that are critical to both the Sri Lanka and United States Air Forces.”
These staff talks align with Department of Defense Strategy released in 2022. The DoD release states that “…Our security commitments to Allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region are steadfast,” and PACAF Airmen host these talks to keep in-line with current and future national objectives with our Allies and partners.
The A2A talks closed with an open-ended discussion between the two forces and a gift exchange demonstrating the commitment to growing the air force partnership. The next talks will be held in Sri Lanka in 2024.
“The Airman-to-Airman talks is a great program and is one that we are glad to be doing face-to-face again at Hickam,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Christopher Smith, PACAF country director to Sri Lanka. “This event was a great opportunity for our two air forces to not only pave a road map for the next few years, but also get to know each other and share our values in order to strengthen our partnership.”
| Date Taken: | 06.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.14.2023 21:56 |
| Story ID: | 447211 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 278 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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