International Affairs

The Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka had talks on bilateral relations and other matters.

විදේශීය ශ්‍රමිකයින්ට අමෙරිකාවට ඇතුල්වීම සඳහා ලබා දෙන වීසා පහසුකම් අත්හිටුවීමට අමෙරිකානු ජනාධිපති ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් තීරණය කර තිබෙනවා. ඒ අතරට ග්‍රීන් කාඩ් ලොතරැයි අනුව එරටට ඇතුල්වීමට අවකාශ හිමි කාණ්ඩ කිහිපයක්ද ඇතුලත් වන බවයි විදෙස් මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කර සිටියේ.

ලොවපුරා කොරෝනා ආසාදිතයින් සංඛ්‍යාව අද (22) වනවිට ලක්‍ෂ 90 සීමාව ඉක්මවා ගොස් තිබෙනවා. ඒ අනුව ලෝකයෙන් වාර්තා වන ආසාදිතයින් සංඛ්‍යාව අනූ ලක්‍ෂ 37,950 ක්. කෙසේවෙතත් ඉන් ලක්‍ෂ 48 කට ආසන්න පිරිසක් දැනටමත් පූර්ණ සුවය ලබා අවසන්.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus cases throughout the world could reach 10 million next week, a sharp increase from the 9.3 million cases currently reported.

Despite a recent statement by the Government to the effect that it would not sign the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact, the American Government believes it was still under review by their Sri Lankan counterpart.

The High Commission of India organised a yoga session in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Army at the Headquarters of Sri Lanka Army in Colombo to mark the sixth International Day of Yoga yesterday, 21 June, 2020. Special messages from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa were telecast on the occasion.

The Government of India has extended its fullest cooperation to boost Sri Lanka's investment and tourism sectors, which have been hit by the Covid -19 (Corona) epidemic. Accordingly, Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Gopal Bagley assured that the necessary financial, technical and other support will be provided for this purpose.

The head of the World Health Organization said Monday the coronavirus pandemic is being politicized and that a lack of global leadership to fight the virus is a bigger threat than the virus itself.

The Cabinet this week gave approval for the Government to utilise $56 million given by the World Bank for projects to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, which will include strengthening e-education, disaster management and infrastructure support for working from home.

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors on Monday approved additional financing for Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project.

Saudi Arabia has banned international visitors from making the Islamic pilgrimage, or Hajj, this year in a bid to control coronavirus.

Developing Asia will barely grow in 2020 as containment measures to address the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic hamper economic activity and weaken external demand, according to a new set of forecasts from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The reciprocal action comes amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian rival countries over their long-running Kashmir territorial dispute.

The Norwegian Embassy in Colombo has entered into an agreement to support PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Election) to follow health and safety regulations relating to preventing the spread of COVID-19 during the upcoming election.

NEW DELHI (Reuters): India plans to impose higher trade barriers and raise import duties on around 300 products from China and elsewhere, two government officials said, as part of an effort to protect domestic businesses.

The World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic is still growing even as countries start to ease lockdowns and other restrictions.

එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආරක්ෂක මණ්ඩලයේ ස්ථිර නොවන සාමාජිකත්වය සඳහා තරග වැදුණු කැනඩාව, අයර්ලන්තය, සහ නෝර්වේ යන රටවල් තුන වෙනුවෙන්ම පසුගිය සතියේ පැවැති ඡන්ද විමසීමේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සිය ඡන්දය භාවිත කිරීමෙන් වැළකී සිටියේය.

BEIJING (Reuters): About 20% of projects under China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to link Asia, Europe and beyond have been ‘seriously affected’ by the coronavirus pandemic, an official from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.