The International Religious Freedom Report for 2017 was released US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback at the US State Department on 29 May 2018. The report on Sri Lanka said that Buddhist nationalist groups such …
Nine years after the war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in May 2009, reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils still appears to be a far cry. And most disturbingly, the logjam is …
The discourse on fundamental issues concerning Sri Lankan Tamils continues to revolve around political settlement, the two key components of which are greater devolution of powers to provinces and the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces. These two aspects featured in the 1987 Indo-Sri …
Former UNP MP and media personality J. Sri Ranga has accused the four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and other Tamil MPs of conveniently remaining silent on the possible use of ‘poison gas’ on the Vanni east front in 2009. The then government brought the war …
Outgoing US Ambassador Atul Keshap has said his country wants to walk hand-in-hand with all Sri Lankans to see the dream of a brighter future coming true. “As you look at the UN process, as you look at the American partnership, we want to walk …
In 1990, Harvard Professor Joseph S Nye, called such an approach to building up support as the use of “soft power”. The aim of “soft power” is to create, in another country, a favourable impression of the “power” in question, modifying the impact of military …
China, on Wednesday said that as of the end of 2017, Chinese companies had completed more than US 15 billion dollars worth of infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka and made great contributions to the economic and social development of the island country. China’s Ambassador to …
Due to geo-political compulsions, Sri Lanka has to keep its relations with the West and India on an even keel. But there are indications that it is tilting towards Russia, China and Iran as it inches towards Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2020. The socialist-nationalist …
India has always accorded priority to Sri Lanka in its foreign policy discourse owing to a combination of geo-strategic, political and socio-cultural factors. However, relations have often been determined by factors internal to these countries; India has been compelled to scale down its ‘active involvement’ …
Nine years is perhaps too short a time for deep wounds to heal, but it is enough time to begin to introspect. However, going by the polarised views around the anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, there are few signs of that. …