Category: Breaking News

A recent resolution adopted by the European Parliament, urging the EU Commission to consider temporary withdrawal of the GSP+ status given to Sri Lanka, has put the spotlight back on the country’s human rights situation, prompting Colombo to defend its “multifaceted progress” in a response on Monday.

Sri Lanka regained the GSP +, or the EU’s ‘Generalised Scheme of Preferences’ in 2017, under the former Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe administration, on Colombo’s commitment to implement 27 international conventions on human rights, labour conditions, protection of the environment and good governance. The status effectively removes import duties on goods from Sri Lanka entering the EU.

The June 10 resolution, expressing “deep concern over Sri Lanka’s alarming path towards the recurrence of grave human rights violations”, — an observation earlier made by the UN human rights Chief — makes specific reference to the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), widely termed draconian, pointing to the arrests of prominent lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah and poet Ahnaf Jazeem, among others, who are in “arbitrary” detention for over a year.

The resolution notes the “continuing discrimination” against and violence towards religious and ethnic minorities, while voicing “serious concern” about the 20th Amendment passed in 2020, and the “resulting decline in judiciary independence, the reduction of parliamentary control, and the excessive accumulation of power with the presidency”. It highlights “accelerating militarisation” of civilian government functions in Sri Lanka, pointing to at least 28 serving or former military and intelligence personnel appointed to key administrative posts since 2020, after the Rajapaksas returned to power.

Responding, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said it regrets the adoption of the resolution that, it observed, “contains factual inaccuracies, and does not take cognizance of the multifaceted progress made by Sri Lanka in reconciliation and development.” Rejecting claims that the PTA is systematically used for arbitrary detentions, the Ministry government said it was “revisiting provisions” of the Act to propose “necessary amendments”, drawing upon international best practices, months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa expanded the PTA’s ambit.

The resolution comes ahead of a periodic review of the ‘GSP +’ concessions accorded to the country, that the government said, contributed significantly” to higher production, investment, and improvement of the human capital in Sri Lanka. The fisheries sector too had experienced “a notable growth”, benefitting from the concessions, the Foreign Ministry said in its statement, indicating the significance it attached to retaining the special trade concessions.

Apparently taking a different view, State Minister of Money, Capital Markets and Public Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal said the government is working out strategies to position itself to export Sri Lankan products “in a competitive business environment rather than depending on trade concessions such as GSP”, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

The EU is Sri Lanka’s second-largest trading partner — after China — and its second main export destination, absorbing 22.4% of Sri Lankan exports in 2020, mainly textiles and clothing, according to the European Commission. Following adoption of the resolution last week, Sri Lanka’s Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa said in a tweet: “EU parliament resolution calling for the temporary suspension of Sri Lanka’s GSP+ status will have a debilitating impact on our exports and the economy.”

Source:The Hindu

Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has inked a deal to import fuel through the China-backed Hambantota International Port Group and store it at a nearby location.

HIPG said will sublease the required land area within the port, for the construction and operation of the pipeline, with approval of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.

“The vision of HIPG is to develop the Hambantota International Port to become an energy hub for South Asia,” Johnson Liu, CEO of HIPG said.

“Whilst HIPG has put the infrastructure in place to realize that goal, we are also aware that we cannot achieve it without the participation of all the players in the equation.

“To this end, we recognize the importance of Ceylon Petroleum Corporation as a vital cog in the machinery.”

CPC will take the fuel to a facility to be built 15 kilometres away in a 15 acre land now belonging to the Mahaweli Authority.

The new facility will expand storage and bulk distribution facilities of CPC to about three months of supply from the current one month supply in Colombo.

“The partnership with HIPG will increase the storage facility of CPC to the expected capacity; thereby the impact of global fuel price fluctuations can be mitigated andit will drive CPC to minimize and save additional foreign currency outflows,” Sumith Wijesinghe, Chairman of CPC said in the statement.

“Apart from that, setting up in the Hambantota Industrial Zone, away from the traffic congestion of the country’s most residential cities, will make it an environmentally-friendly terminal.”

Due to money printing with a soft-pegged exchange rate regime, most of Sri Lanka’s economic policies are directed towards ‘saving foreign exchange’.

HIPG said it had already started bulk supply of marine bunker fuels.

“In order to build this energy hub, we entered into a strategic partnership with Sinopec Fuel Oil Lanka Limited (SFOL) to provide bunkering services for vessels,” Tissa Wickramasinghe, chief operating officer of HIPG said.

“Sinopec with their vast resources guarantees the supply of VLSFO and MGO in Hambantota, enabling the port to service all vessels plying the principal sea routes in the Indian Ocean.”

An LPG transshipment terminal is also at the port. HIPG had also partnered with Intertek Lanka (Pvt) Ltd to set up a petroleum testing laboratory.

The Norwegian Coastal Administration has offered remote assistance in responding to marine pollution caused by X-Press Pearl, Ambassador Trine Jøranli Eskedal said.

In response to a query by Daily Mirror, the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo said the Norwegian experts had held a meeting with the Sri Lankan authorities.

“Experts from the Norwegian Coastal Administration have offered remote assistance, and have held a meeting with relevant Sri Lankan counterparts. Norway is also exploring other avenues of possible support,” she said.

The contain vessel that caught fire off the Colombo Port triggered a marine environmental crisis for Sri Lanka. Fisheries activities have been barred in the area.

The extension of Covid-19 related travel restrictions by Sri Lankan government are severely affecting the Tamil daily wage workers in North and Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.

The assistance scheme provided by Sri Lankan government through Divisional Councils reach a certain number of people, and its does not reach economically deprived people of the community .

The local observers are urged that the diaspora organisations should work with the Tamil political parties at home to carry out a plan to save the Tamil people from the growing economic crisis. The diaspora should take note that the assistance given through Sri Lankan government are not reaching the poor Tamil families in North and East, they said.

CHENNAI: The enactment of the Colombo Port City Commission Act in Sri Lanka last month has created a lot of disquiet and dismay among the people on both sides of the Palk Strait. There has been much hype in the media about increased threat to south India as a result of China gaining control of the special economic zone coming up in the Colombo Port City (CPC), overlooking Colombo port.

In the next two decades, the CPC is poised to grow into an international financial hub like Dubai and Singapore. The only difference is, the state-owned China Harbour Engineering Co (CHEC), a subsidiary of the China Communications Construction Company, holding a 99-year lease on 85% of land, will be calling the shots.

Apprehension about CPC is real, not merely for south India, but India as a whole. Commercially Colombo port is important because nearly 70% of India’s container traffic passes through it. In strategic situations, Chinese presence close to it would make a difference. But, more than that, the CPC legitimises the huge presence of multifaceted Chinese interests —trade and commerce, logistics, communication, finance and infrastructure.

This gives China a big advantage in challenging India’s domination of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). It will also enhance China’s ability to use its unmatched money power, to progress its influence in India’s neighbourhood in the name of development aid.

Many Sri Lankan leaders are equally worried about the increasing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka. The Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcom Ranjith, obviously referring to the CPC Commission enactment, said, “Development is not selling the country’s resources … the politicians are responsible for protecting the country. Please do not offer our land to different countries.” Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga had warned that Sri Lanka “has all but become a colony of China.”

The SEZ will confer not only commercial and financial benefits to China, it will also augment its intelligence and counter-intelligence operations to eavesdrop with Indian communication, track warship movements, enhance cyber threat and satellite tracking. And more than all this, the SEZ can be a useful take-off point for infiltrating agents acting against Indian interests. In the past, Pakistan had used its high commission in Colombo to infiltrate agents and terrorists into south India. The southern states, in particular, will have to tighten their coastal and airport security to prevent such efforts.

Sri Lanka’s unique geographic location, midway astride the sea lanes of Indian Ocean, makes it an essential part of China’s maritime security architecture in the Indo-Pacific. China’s concern about Indian Ocean countries joining the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) framework of the US, India, Japan and Australia has been increasing. The China-centric Quad aims at ensuring a free and open international order based on the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific.

China’s state councillor and defence minister General Wei Fenghe briefly visited Dhaka and Colombo in May-end, when a political controversy was raging in Sri Lanka over the draft CPC commission bill. After meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gen Wei remarked that peaceful development and win-win cooperation is the global trend and the ‘right way’ forward. Without mentioning the Quad framework, he said certain major countries were keen to form cliques and factions and seek regional hegemony, which goes against peoples shared aspiration and harms the interests of regional countries. He had made a similar reference during his meeting with Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, emphasising the two sides should make joint efforts against powers outside the region setting up military alliance in South Asia and practising hegemonism.

It is obvious Sri Lanka would come under tremendous pressure from China in the coming months in tandem with the criticalities of Indo-Pacific strategic situation. Under such circumstances, it is going to be extremely difficult for President Rajapaksa to resist the lure of the yuan, when the Sri Lankan economy is struggling to manage its mounting debts.

India and Sri Lanka have a good understanding of each other’s security concerns. According to Sri Lanka foreign secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage’s statement in November 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has made it clear that Sri Lanka’s strategic security policy will have an “India first” approach, though Colombo was dealing with other countries for economic development. But such sentiments did not prevent Colombo from going back on its commitment to India, whether it is on jointly developing the Eastern Container Terminal or other projects like strategic development of Trincomalee port.

India should be prepared for dynamic changes in the trilateral relations involving Sri Lanka and China. As China firms up its presence within the CPC, we can expect it to increase its influence with the body politic of Sri Lanka. It is poised to become an indispensable part of the party politics, similar to a position India had occupied some years ago.

Obviously, India cannot compete with China’s money power and its development, but it can use its strength in shared history and culture with Sri Lanka. In this regard, India has not used the potential of cross-strait relations among Tamils to Sri Lanka’s advantage, ever since the muscular intervention during PM Rajiv Gandhi’s era.

(The writer is a former MI specialist on South Asia. He served as head of Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990)