India is increasing the area covered by its Indo-Pacific policy to include the western Indian ocean and Arabian Sea. This means that Asean is not only the heart of the Indo-Pacific, but includes the Gulf states and Africa. The Indo-Pacific concept is also moving beyond …
In the weeks that followed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s big election win, Sri Lanka witnessed some rapid international outreach — both from and to Colombo — reflecting the strategic and geographic prominence of the Indian Ocean island that is home to 21 million people. India was …
At Sri Lanka’s southern tip, an abandoned British lighthouse stands sentinel near a half-moon-shaped cove bobbing with turquoise dinghies. Fishermen wearing sarongs drag wooden outriggers across a beach backed by centuries-old salt flats and palm trees. Less than 2 miles down the coast, towering blue-and-white …
Religious nationalism played the central role in the recently-held Sri Lankan presidential election, in which Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa came away victorious, winning 52.25 percent of the vote. The results reveal that the success of the candidates in each electorate area was determined by what religious …
Sri Lanka is a role model for the dictum of diplomacy being the extension of a country’s national policies. Sri Lanka’s performance must be commended since it also grapples with an unresolved nationality question in which its big neighbor India has historically staked claim as …
Gotabaya Rajapakse won Sri Lanka’s Presidential Elections on November 16. This is not the first time Sri Lanka has had a Rajapakse as president. Mahinda Rajapakse, Gotabaya’s brother, also served as president from 2005 to 2015. Under the presidency of Rajapakse, Sri Lanka became the …
Promising to be “frank” and “upfront” to avoid the misunderstandings of the past between New Delhi and Colombo, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says India and other countries in the region must invest more in Sri Lanka if they want to provide an alternative to …
Earlier this month, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s president, following his victory in the country’s eighth presidential elections. Gotabaya replaced Maithripala Sirisena, who did not seek reelection, amid widespread concerns internationally about his human rights record. To better understand the implications of …
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the Rajapaksa government will take forward the reconciliation process to meet the aspirations of Tamil community in Sri Lanka which also includes the implementation of 13th Amendment. Prime Minister Modi made these remarks after holding talks with …
Addressing the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars think tank on 21 November 2019, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells said that, India is the only major country in the world to have opposed the OBOR project …