A foreign company that has secured the exclusive right to process applications for Sri Lankan visas stands to earn at least 12.76 billion rupees ($42.5 million) for the same service that a local company had offered virtually free. Chaos broke out at the Bandaranaike International Airport on May Day when VFS Global set up an […]

A partnership between an Indian and a Russian firm has secured the management rights for the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota. The airport, once infamous as the “world’s emptiest airport” due to minimal flight activity, is now under the purview of Shaurya Aeronautics (Pvt) Ltd of India and Airports of Regions Management Company of […]

MP Dayasiri Jayasekera informs House: By Saman Indrajith Parliament was yesterday informed that two Indians were recruiting ex-Sri Lankan servicemen to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war. SLFP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera said the leading operator had identified himself as a lawyer while his brother called

Colombo has demonstrated its own brand of strategic autonomy on issues from Russia’s war in Ukraine to China’s global footprint By Michael Kugelman Most South Asian governments tend to have nonaligned foreign policies, balancing their relations with major powers. This maximizes their diplomatic flexibility and ability to operate independently on the world stage, also known as […]

Rajith Keerthy Tennakoon Director General of Community Affairs at the President’s Office delivering a special media statement today (05) stated that between the assumption of office by  President Ranil Wickremesinghe and February 2024, the Government of Sri Lanka has settled a total of US$ 1909.7 million in foreign debt and interest payments. He also highlighted […]

The Defence Ministry has urged all members of Lankan tri-forces not to join Russian or Ukraine military forces through illegal means. In response to foreign media reports regarding the Sri Lankan soldiers killed in the Russia– Ukraine war, the Defence Ministry has said that although information

By Norman Palihawadane The CID is investigating a human trafficking network enabling Lankan ex servicemen to fight as mercenaries in both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war, Police headquarters sources said on Friday. According to information confirmed by the investigators, at least five

Sri Lanka’s fate compared with that of Sikkim By Shamindra Ferdinando National Freedom Front (NFF) leader and Chairman of the Uththara Lanka Sabhagaya (ULS) Wimal Weerawansa, MP, said that President Ranil Wickremesinghe, SJB leader Sajith Premadasa, MP, and JVP/JJB leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, MP, were pursuing the same strategy to address the economic crisis. Therefore, […]

Sri Lanka strongly condemned the dastardly terrorist attack which occurred at the Crocus City shopping center in Moscow, Russia causing tragic loss of civilian lives and injury.  The Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry said that such cowardly acts of violence against civilians are abhorrent

Sri Lanka has strongly condemned the dastardly terrorist attack which occurred at the Crocus City shopping center in Moscow, Russia on Friday (22), causing tragic loss of civilian lives and injury, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

By Shamindra Ferdinando By the time President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had arrived in Singapore in the second week of July 2022, a few days after fleeing Sri Lanka, he firmly believed that then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was the only person capable of restoring the rule of law in the country. In the chapter titled ‘The […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty During President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s India visit in July 2023, five Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) were signed by India and Sri Lanka to establish physical connections between the two countries. This was followed more recently by the launch of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) – a mechanism that claims to reduce the cost […]

By Rathindra Kuruwita Sri Lanka had received six proposals for the construction of nuclear plants here. Prof. S. R. D. Rosa, Chairman – Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board (SLAEB) said during a recent seminar organised by the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) on ‘Potential of nuclear energy and its challenges in Sri Lanka. Russia’s […]

In a welcome development in relation to Sri Lanka’s regional policy, some state functionaries of the Ranil Wickremesinghe regime have gone on record as having stated that Sri Lanka would be taking notable cognizance of India’s security concerns, going forward. This is as it should be. None of India’s immediate neighbours could afford to overlook […]

Promises good economic and political relations with China A National People’s Power (NPP) administration will not do anything that will undermine Indian security; however, it will maintain economic and political relations with China, the NPP delegation to India told Indian officials, NPP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Thursday (15) night. In his first interview since […]