Israel’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Reuven Javier Azar, paid a courtesy call on Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha (Retd), at the Ministry of Defence in Sri Jayawardenepura, Kotte.
According to an official statement from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, the meeting involved a “cordial exchange of views on matters of mutual interest, with particular focus on strengthening bilateral cooperation”.
“Discussions also encompassed regional security dynamics, capacity-building initiatives, and opportunities for future collaboration between the two nations,” said the official defence website.
Ambassador Azar, who concurrently serves as Israel’s non-resident ambassador to Sri Lanka and Bhutan, is based in New Delhi. Defence Secretary Thuyacontha, a former Air Vice Marshal, assumed his current role in 2024. He is a military figure who boasted of causing “chaos” during the Mullivaikkal genocide. Thuyacontha was the Wing Commander of the No 09 squadron, a helicopter gunship squadron that conducted nearly 400 missions during the genocide.
The genocide, which concluded in May 2009, saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilians massacred by the Sri Lankan military who indiscriminately bombed hospitals and government declared ‘No Fire Zones’.
The meeting also comes in the midst of Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has been denounced by human rights organisations around the world and been labelled by many as a genocide.
