The Queen’s final journey is under way as her coffin is carried by gun carriage to her funeral service at Westminster Abbey.
The King is leading the Royal Family in procession behind the carriage.
Tens of thousands of people have travelled to London and Windsor for the funeral and burial service, which are being watched on television by millions around the world.
A van transporting a journalist and the crew were raided by Sri Lanka police less than 24 hours after an interview with President Ranil Wickremesinghe, foreign correspondent Avani Dias has claimed today (16).
In a twitter post by Dias, she claimed that the crew and herself were covering the ongoing protests in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the year and had interviewed President Wickremesinghe yesterday and in less than 24 hours police stopped their vehicle twice with claims that the crew was concealing someone.
Our crew van was pulled over by Sri Lankan police and searched – twice. 'They think we're concealing someone in this car.' #ForeignCorrespondent pic.twitter.com/PSo7srejR4
— ForeignCorrespondent (@ForeignOfficial) September 15, 2022
The Acting Convenor of the Inter University Students Federation, Terence Rodrigo alleged that the Government’s acts of repression are performative, and further stated that despite harking about neoliberal values, none of the arrested activists have been presented before Court.
Commenting on why the government was trying to make an example of protesters, Rodrigo rationalized that it is was because the government was unable to provide solutions to the economic and political problems faced by the people of Sri Lanka.
‘Ranil Rajapaksa’s economic reforms are not the answers the people are looking for’, he said, adding that the national resources of the country have been sold by them.
Seven Sri Lankans detained by Russian troops in Ukraine have been rescued.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Sri Lankans were rescued after the Kharkiv region was recaptured from Russia.
Russian troops had detained the Sri Lankan students in March.
“Torture chambers where civilians of occupied cities and towns were bullied and premises where people, even foreigners, were kept have been found, the Russian President was quoted as saying.
He said that the Sri Lankans were students of the Kupyansk Medical College.
They had been captured by Russian soldiers in march and were kept in a basement.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Sri Lankans are being provided with proper medical attention.
The Sri Lankan authorities are discussing with Moscow the possibility of joining Russian payment system MIR, the discussion is underway between the Central Banks, Sri Lankan Minister of Transport and Highways and Minister of Mass Media Bandula Gunawardena has told Sputnik.
“Yes, yes, our embassy tried to do that because you want to [have] easy payment system… We will try to do that, we can get Central Bank’s approval. After that it will be a success,” Gunawardena said when asked whether the Mir payment system would be launched in Sri Lanka.
The minister added that the discussion is underway between the Central Banks of the two countries, adding that “we must get Central Bank’s approval. After that, we will announce that.”
He noted that the Sri Lankan authorities would like Russian tourists to be able to pay by card while visiting the country.
Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia on March 6 against the backdrop of Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine. Since then, the holders of Visa and Mastercard bank cards issued in Russia can no longer pay for goods and services outside Russia.
Source: Sputnik
Sri Lanka is keen to upgrade the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement into a comprehensive economic and technological partnership, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Friday, asserting that the work which started in 2018 and 2019 has not found much progress.
The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka was the first-ever bilateral trade agreement for both countries, signed in 1998 and enforced in 2000. The pact is aimed at further boosting the economic ties between the two countries by liberalising trade norms.
“Sri Lanka and India gradually have to wean themselves out of the barriers to investment and the non-tariff barriers to trade especially in relation to Sri Lanka Indo economic relations,” Wickremesinghe said while addressing a gathering of the Sri Lanka-India Society to mark the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence.
He said the future relations of India with its neighbours will be determined by trade integration.
“Trade integration gives an economic base. The common economic base is a prerequisite for better national security and better political relations,” he said.
The first such step would be to revive and upgrade the FTA into a comprehensive economic and technological partnership. The FTA-related work which started in 2018 and 2019 has not found much progress, he said.
Wickremesinghe said the second step was to look at all the projects which India and Sri Lanka had agreed to, but got delayed at the Sri Lankan end.
Two key such projects are the power grid connection between India and Sri Lanka, offshore wind energy, a solar power plant at Sampur in the eastern province and renewable energy projects on three islands of Jaffna in the north, he said.
“We have a tremendous scope of potential renewable energy, and India has stepped in first. There’ll be others. But from Puttlam to Mullativu, if we exploit renewable energy and go in for green hydrogen and also provide power to India, you will see the upliftment of the Northern economy, which had not happened earlier.
“The big impact on the northern economy and the implementation. Then we come to promoting Indian higher education institutes to come into Sri Lanka, especially Jaffna is one area we have identified, again another development,” he said.
Wickremesinghe referred to the Trincomalee oil storage tank farm development with India.
“We are developing logistics because of the fact that we are one of the main ports for India and Bangladesh. So together with India, Adani Group has already taken over part of the West terminal of the south port,” he said.
Adani Group sealed a deal with Sri Lanka to develop and run the strategic Colombo Port’s Western Container Terminal in September last year.
Building on the USAID Administrator Samantha Powers’s recent visit, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung announced today that the United States, through USAID, will provide an additional estimated $65 million (more than 23 billion Sri Lankan rupees) in assistance to Sri Lanka over a five-year period.
The assistance falls under the Development Objectives Assistance Agreement (DOAG) signed by Gabriel Grau, Mission Director for USAID Sri Lanka and Maldives and Mahinda Siriwardena, Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka said.
This funding is in addition to over $60 million (21 billion Sri Lankan rupees) of new humanitarian and fertilizer assistance that Administrator Power announced last week in response to the current economic and political crises in Sri Lanka
In celebration of the start of this new bilateral agreement, Ambassador Julie Chung remarked, “The United States and the American people are proud of our enduring and robust partnership with the people and government of Sri Lanka. We remain fully committed to supporting locally led initiatives to advance a stable, prosperous, and peaceful Sri Lanka – critical to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all nations are connected, prosperous, resilient, and secure,”
The U.S., through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is committed to supporting Sri Lanka to advance market-driven growth, environmental sustainability and resilience, and good governance. All USAID funding for Sri Lanka is provided as gifts or grants and is implemented by local and international organizations that adhere to strict monitoring standards.
The U.S. has provided more than $2 billion (approximately 720 billion Sri Lankan rupees) in development assistance to Sri Lanka since 1956.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is to depart for the UK tomorrow (17) to attend the funeral of late Queen Elizabeth II.
The royal funeral is to be held of Sep. 19 and the day has been declared a special public holiday as well as a day of mourning in Sri Lanka.
Queen Elizabeth II, who was the head of the Commonwealth, reigned as Queen of Ceylon from 1952 to 1972.
An extraordinary gazette has been issued dissolving seven Urban Councils to transform them into Municipal Councils with the aim of developing a capital city in each administrative district.
Accordingly, the Local Government Bodies of Vavuniya, Kalutara, Kegalle, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Mannar and two cities in Ampara have had their Urban Councils dissolved.
The extraordinary gazette has been issued by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena in his capacity as the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government.
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman Professor G.L Peiris says an “invisible hand” is controlling the SLPP and as a result even the Government.
In an interview with Daily Mirror, Peiris said that the SLPP can pull the rug from under the feet of President Ranil Wickremesinghe at any time.
“The fact is it is an invisible hand that controls everything. There is so much feeling in the country about the excessive powers attached to the Executive Presidency. People are saying it is too powerful and that it has a chilling effect on other institutions. But don’t forget that the Executive Presidency operates within the framework of the law. But today you have a majority of SLPP members controlled by a force outside Parliament who is not accountable to anybody under the sun,” he said.
The SLPP Chairman, who crossed over to the opposition with a group of SLPP members recently, said that the President is totally dependent on the SLPP.
“The President, powerful as he is, has only one member of Parliament, Wajira Abeywardena. So, the President is reliable on the SLPP. The SLPP can pull the rug from under his feet at any time. The President is totally dependent on the SLPP,” the former Minister said.
The SLPP Chairman said that he does not attend party meetings anymore as a small group of people have taken over the party.
“You have decisions being made by a small group of people whether that reflects the aspirations of the vast mass of the party is questionable,” he said.
