International Affairs

Addressing the 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Baku, Azerbaijan on 26 October, Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s commitment to the founding principles of the NAM and called for the group’s collective attention to the need to address contemporary global challenges, highlighting in particular, poverty and terrorism.

Indian full-service carrier Vistara said it will start daily non-stop flights on the Mumbai-Colombo route from November 25 this year, the Press Trust of India reported.

China Southern Airlines has restored its fully-fledged services of three flights per week to and from Colombo, which was reduced to one soon after the Easter Sunday tragedy.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have been killed in a raid conducted by the US military in northwest Syria on Saturday, according to a senior US defense official and a source with knowledge.

Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana is leading the Sri Lanka delegation to the 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Secretary to the Foreign Ministry Ravinatha Aryasinha has emphasised the urgent need for the development of an overarching security architecture and institutional frameworks that address the security issues in the Indian Ocean Region. Referring to the Track 1.5 Conference ‘The Indian Ocean: Defining our Future’ hosted by Sri Lanka in October 2018, which is to graduate to a Ministerial level conference, he noted that it held the promise of contributing to the development of an international rules-based order, with established rules and principles, operating on a common understanding of the challenges and solutions in the Indian Ocean region. He added that the finalisation of a Work Plan at the First Meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) Maritime Safety and Security (MSS) Working Group chaired by Sri Lanka and held in Colombo in August 2019, would also allow Member states to facilitate practical coordination to ensure sustainable economic development.

ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී උතුරු නැගෙනහිර ඡන්ද වර්ජනයක නිරත වන ලෙස දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාව දෙමළ දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලට බලපෑම් එල්ල කර ඇති බව වාර්තා වෙයි.

Minister for Economic Development of Maldives Fayyaz Ismail who graced the inaugural session of the Meeting on 23 October, with CEO of SDF Dr. Sunil Motiwal and SDF Counterpart Agency focal points from the eight SAARC Member States – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan , India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

In a first effort of its nature, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Colombo is collaboratively unveiling a Forum on Bamboo for Energy and Industrial Sustainability on 25 October.

Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BOI) has approved US$ 4.6 billion worth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects in the first seven months this year of which agreements for US$ 4.1 billion have already been signed.

The UAE Embassy in Colombo has published a new tweet revising its travel advisory to Sri Lanka, this time requesting tourists to exercise caution and stay away from public gatherings while touring the country.

The Trump administration says it will push the new Sri Lankan Government on the human rights issue.

Asian election observers have called for an equal playing field during the presidential elections in Sri Lanka.

The European Union (EU) has noted that the upcoming Presidential election is important for Sri Lanka to continue making progress on its path of reform and national reconciliation.

ජපානයේ තෙදින නිල සංචාරයක නිරත ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා සහ ජපානයේ හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය යෂුවෝ ෆුකූඩා මහතා අතර හමුවක් ඊයේ (22) පෙරවරුවේ ටෝකියෝ නුවරදී පැවැත්විණි.

මානව හහිමිකම් උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමේ චෝදනා ඇති හමුදාපති ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා හා අනෙකුත් හමුදා නිලධාරීන් වගඋත්තරකරුවන් කරන ලෙස ඇමරිකානු රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තු ප්‍රධානී රොබර්ට වෙස්ට්රෝ කළ ඉල්ලීම ජනපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විසින් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කර ඇත.

The International Truth and Justice Project has called for a review of all naval cooperation with Sri Lanka after it found a large number of top Sri Lankan navy commanders were complicit in torture, disappearance and murder that occurred inside naval sites from at least 2008-14.

Economic Reforms and Public Distribution Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva met UK Minister of State for International Trade Conor Burns, MP, on the sidelines of the Sri Lanka Investment Forum 2019 held in London recently.