A high level delegation headed by the State Minister of Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya is scheduled to visit Russia to arrange for the repatriation of Sri Lankan ex-military personnel deployed in Russia for military purposes and the related discussions will be held on June 26 and 27, said Minister of Foreign Affairs, President’s Counsel Ali […]

Chair of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security retired Vice Admiral Sarath Weerasekera has said an external mechanism is in place to prepare the ground for a war crimes probe against the Sri Lankan military and those who provided political leadership for the country’s war on terror. Addressing the last SOC held in the Parliamentary complex, […]

Arrangements are being made by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages of the Sabaragumawa University to hold its second International Conference on Social Sciences and Languages (ICSSL) on the 18th and 19th of December 2024. A press release said that the conference will feature a wide range of presentations on multidisciplinary research activities in the fields of social sciences […]

Sri Lanka’s HC in the UK Rohitha Bogollagama has sought an opportunity to engage in further discussions on the UK models of devolution with the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish government representatives.The Foreign Ministry revealed this in a press release issued on Wednesday (12) regarding a team led by HC Bogollagama with the UK […]

The Colombo Stock Exchange’s (CSE) implementation of the shortened settlement cycle for equity trades has been executed seamlessly with the first settlement under the T+ 2 cycle taking place on 12th June 2024, marking a significant milestone in Sri Lankan Capital Market operations. Investors have experienced swift payment processing, receiving their funds within two days […]

Friday 14th June, 2024 The US presidential race has taken another dramatic turn with a federal jury finding President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, guilty of having illegally purchased and possessed a gun while being addicted to crack cocaine. A sentencing date has not yet been set. The offence carries a prison term. Hunter is reportedly […]

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the second review under the 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) Arrangement, allowing the authorities to draw SDR 254 million (about US$336 million). This brings the total IMF financial support disbursed so far to SDR 762 million (about US$1 billion). The Executive Board also concluded the […]

Twenty newly recruited officers to the Sri Lanka Foreign Service were welcomed to the Ministry by Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane on Tuesday (11). The Foreign Secretary highlighted the important role of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service (SLFS) and the special responsibilities of all officers as public servants. She referred to the skills required in the […]

Ambassador comments on 2024 prez poll Russian Ambassador Levan Dzhagaryan said that regardless of the outcome of the presidential election later this year in Sri Lanka, the Russian Federation expected the new government to continue with what he called independent neutral foreign policy and preserve the continuity in friendly relations with Russia. Declaring that Russia […]

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved Sri Lanka s second review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme, paving the way for the country to receive the third tranche of around USD 330 million, Sri Lanka s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said.

Nepal, which earlier hesitated to completely pivot towards China because of several economic and geopolitical factors, seems to have tilted heavily towards its big northern neighbor, giving it an opportunity to further increase its footprint in the Himalayan country’s political, economic, and social space. Yet what concerns Nepal watchers the most is the Himalayan nation’s […]

Director-General of the International Labour Organisation Gilbert F. Houngbo has lauded the Sri Lankan government’s recent move to grant a 70 percent salary increment to plantation sector workers. Houngbo commended the government for increasing the estate workers’ salaries when Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara met him on the sidelines of the Annual International Lab...

The Chinese regime succeeded where the Soviet Union failed: it kept and revamped Communism, making the West pay the price It happened a few hours before dawn. It was June 4, 1989, 35 years ago, more than a generation ago. In the dark of night, peaceful demonstrators camped out since April 15 in Tiananmen Square, […]

‘A violation of unanimous parliamentary resolution’ By Saman Indrajith The SJB yesterday said that the government had published a gazette allowing the incumbent Sri Lanka Cricket President and Secretary to remain in their positions, purportedly in exchange for providing funds for government members to contest future elections. Addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s Office […]

In the midst of tension in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, Japan, China and South Korea held a trilateral summit in Seoul on May 27, the first since July 2019. The summit was attended by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. For the sake […]

by K.Locana Gunaratna, PhD Following some independence from the Colonial British through the Donoughmore Constitution in 1931, our prime indigenous concerns focused on agriculture for domestic consumption and on the broad-basing of education. These particular achievements were due respectively to two farsighted Sri Lankan politicians: D.S.Senanayake and C.W.W. Kannangara. They were the first Sri L...

by ACB Pethiyagoda A desire to visit Burma (Myanmar since 1989) having seen the film ‘The Story of Dr. Wossell’ as a school boy was fulfilled recently. The film was about a dedicated British Army Medical Officer who during World War II fell in love with the country and more deeply with a lithesome and […]