Category: News

UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Director, Ben Mellor, had talks with a wide range of stakeholders in Sri Lanka.

Along with the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sarah Hulton, they met a wide range of stakeholders in Colombo, Jaffna and Galle, the British High Commission in Colombo said.

“It was great to accompany our UK Director across three provinces this week, meeting important stakeholders across civil society, businesses and government. We had productive discussions about local concerns and priorities, and economic and development opportunities,” the British High Commissioner said.

During their visits to Galle and Jaffna, they met with the governors of the Northern and Southern Provinces, toured a Red Cross Project site to hear about how UK funding has impacted vulnerable communities, and visited the Jaffna University and the historic Jaffna Library.

In Colombo they met with the Minister for Public Security, State Minister for Finance, and the Foreign Secretary.

A north-based political party has expressed fears about the Sri Lankan government launching an investigation to find out whether India is intervening to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Crusaders for Democracy Party (CDP) claims that the Counter-Terrorism Investigation Division (CTID) has interrogated former LTTE members in this regard.

The Sri Lankan Government has launched these investigations while the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) faces national and international condemnation.

“We are being questioned as to whether India is reviving the LTTE, whether India is providing funds, what does India ask us to do here, and whether any activities are being conducted against the Sri Lanka government,” said CDP General Secretary, I. Kadir, during a press briefing in Jaffna.

He said that CTID officers who travelled from Colombo visited his house in Jaffna recently and questioned him for 4 hours and 50 minutes.

Moreover, he claimed that CTID officers asked questions a second time in a manner that terrified his family members, and inquired about how his party operates in the Northern and Eastern provinces and India’s involvement in those operations.

“Despite the fact that India has helped (Sri Lanka) immensely to overcome the economic crisis, the Sri Lankan Government remains friendly with India overtly, while maintaining an anti-Indian position covertly.”

Crusaders for Democracy Party, which maintains a pro-Indian position, attended a conference in New Delhi last year. During the conference, matters such as abolishing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), giving powers to Provincial Councils, and fully implementing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution had been discussed.

“I was questioned at length about this conference. It is a well-known fact that I have discussed these matters with Indian authorities.”

During the past 8 years, Crusaders for Democracy Party has engaged in politics in the Northern and Eastern provinces with other Tamil political parties.

“Certain Tamil political parties are conspiring against us with the Government. Regardless, we will prepare a report on this, and hand it over to High Commissions (in Sri Lanka) including the Indian High Commission and Embassies as well as the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka,” CDP general secretary added.

Train operations along the Northern Line between Colombo and Kankesanturai are expected to recommence in July.

Train operations along the Northern Railway line have been restricted to Anuradhapura since January due to the modernisation project of the railway line between Maho junction and Omanthai.

At present, the railway track between Anuradhapura and Vavuniya is being modernised leading to the restrictions.

The renovation project is being carried out under Indian assistance at a cost of USD 91 million.

Minister of Transport Bandula Gunawardena meanwhile has said, the upgrade of the track between Anuradhapura and Omanthai is being carried out expeditiously.

He said once completed, trains will be able to run at an average speed of 100m/h along the Northern Line.

Minister of Transport Bandula Gunawardena added the completion of the renovation work along the Northern Railway line will result in the journey time between Kankesanturai and Colombo reducing by around one hour and 30 minutes.

According to a senior spokesman of Sri Lanka Railways, renovations of the railway track between Anuradhapura and Vavuniya are expected to be completed in July.

Following the completion of the renovations, train operations between Colombo and Kankesanturai are scheduled to recommence on the 15th of July.

Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said many Asian nations have already made a choice between China and the United States in a polarizing geopolitical situation and that choice is Asia accommodating the ambitious projects by both Beijing and Washington.

Wickremesinghe made these comments when he addressed at “Nikkei Forum: Future of Asia‟ held in Tokyo, Japan today on Thursday (25) and highlighted the importance of Asian states having a voice in shaping the region’s role amidst the evolving geopolitics on the global stage.

“We in Asia don’t want to choose between the U.S. and China,” Wickremesinghe told the gathering.

“Many of us cannot make that choice because we have already made our choice, and that choice is Asia,” he said.

Future of Asia is an international gathering where political, economic, and academic leaders from the Asia-Pacific region offer their opinions frankly and freely on regional issues and the role of Asia in the world.

The forum has been held by Nikkei every year since 1995 and it is considered to be one of the most important global conferences in Asia.

Wickremesinghe, invited in his capacity as Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister for the forum , said that all the Asian nations have benefited from the cooperation between the US and China in the post-Cold War era, but the subsequent rapid rise of China and the inability of the two countries to agree on China‟s role on the international stage have led to rivalry, which he referred as “needless tensions in our part of the world”.

China has launched an ambitious Belt Road Initiative (BRI) covering mainly Asia and Africa while the US, as an alternative, has pushed for Indo-Pacific Strategy in the region, stretching from our Pacific coastline to the Indian Ocean, home to more than half of the world’s people, nearly two-thirds of the world’s economy, and seven of the world’s largest militaries.

“We want an Asia that can accommodate the Indo-Pacific, the BRI, as well as the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo- Pacific,” Wickremesinghe said.

“The BRI is a strategy to increase China‟s influence in Asia and Africa through economic means. We, the members of the BRI, have no security arrangements with China, nor do we intend to enter into any security agreements with China.”

“The Indo-Pacific is an evolving concept with unanswered questions.”

Center of Geopolitics

Sri Lanka has become the center of geopolitical war between China and the US in South Asia with India, the world’s sixth largest economy is being a strong ally of the US. The island nation has been under pressure by both India and the West for allowing Chinese investments into the country, citing possible security concerns in the Indian Ocean, government sources have said.

Wickremesinghe said the US – China rivalry has given rise to a number of responses by the West especially to economic coercion and weaponizing of economic vulnerabilities.

“Yet some of these responses may result in a setback to trade integration in the region. Unlike the West, Asia is dominated by middle-income and low-income economies.”

“Of the 12 high-income economies in Asia, only 6 are outside West Asia. The rest of us, including China, India, and Indonesia, are middle income economies. We have to overcome the middle-income trap of economic stagnation.”

In addition to economic coercion, Wickremesinghe said, economic decoupling in which different asset classes that typically rise and fall together start to move in opposite directions, and similar measures contrary to the World Trade Organization rules are other impediments to trade integration.

“Needless to say that we in Sri Lanka and many other Asian nations are opposed to economic coercion: whether it be by one country coercing another using its economic power; or by indirect methods such as de-coupling, or friend-shoring – manufacturing and sourcing only from geopolitical allies – contrary to the WTO,” he said.

“Thus, the WTO system put in place three decades ago should not be by-passed for short term geo-strategic gains. The rules of the game cannot be changed arbitrarily. The losers will be the middle-income Asian countries.”

Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe has apologised to the Japanese government for the unilateral cancellation of a Japan-funded 1.5 billion dollar light rail transit (LRT) project.

Wickremesinghe, who met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Thursday May 25, spoke on the need for legislation to ensure that large-scale bilateral projects cannot be cancelled without mutual agreement, a statement from Wickremesinghe’s office said.

The cancellation of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded project was controversial in Sri Lanka after the government under then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, which was closer to Beijing, unilaterally suspended the project as well as another 500-million US dollar tripartite deal to develop the Colombo Port’s Eastern Container Terminal (ETC) together with India. Relations soured between Sri Lanka and Japan as a result. The east Asian nation has long been considered a friend of Sri Lanka with mutually beneficial diplomatic ties going back decades.

Since his appointment as prime minister in the wake of widespread protests in Sri Lanka after its currency crashed in early 2022, Wickremesinghe has shown a keen interest in repairing ties between the two countries.

Blaming poor foreign policy on the country’s international “marginalisation”, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in June 2022 said: “Japan is our long time friend; a nation that has helped our country greatly. But they are now unhappy with us due to the unfortunate events of the past.”

The statement from President Wickremesinghe’s office on Thursday said he had expressed his gratitude to Japan during his meeting with Prime Minister Kishida for Tokyo’s support in helping Sri Lanka recover from its ongoing macroeconomic crisis. New opportunities to enhance cooperation between the two countries were also discussed, the statement said.

In another meeting held on the same day with Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring and the island nation’s ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme were discussed. A subsequent meeting with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi had focused on strengthening long-term bilateral relations including increased cooperation in economic and cultural fields.

Wickremesinghe and former Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda had participated in a breakfast meeting earlier Thursday organised by by the Japan-Sri Lanka Association where the latter had been briefed on Sri Lanka’s recovery efforts.

The statement said the president had highlighted the favourable investment climate in Sri Lanka and extended an invitation to Japanese investors to return and invest in the country.

In another meeting with a former Japanese premier, Taro Aso, Wickremesinghe had discussed potential steps to strengthen the existing close and friendly relationship with Sri Lanka, the statement said.

In a separate round of discussions with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, also in Tokyo, President Wickremesinghe had reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s commitment to implementing the Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the statement added.

The president’s office said quoting Wickremesinghe that many Asian nations have already made a choice between China and the United States in a polarising geopolitical situation and that choice is Asia accommodating the ambitious projects by both Beijing and Washington.

The president had made these comments when he addressed the “Nikkei Forum: Future of Asia‟ held in Tokyo, where, according to the statement, he had highlighted the importance of Asian states having a voice in shaping the region’s role amidst the evolving geopolitics on the global stage.

“We in Asia don’t want to choose between the U.S. and China,” Wickremesinghe said.

“Many of us cannot make that choice because we have already made our choice, and that choice is Asia,” he said.