The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is warning that debt is the main factor of vulnerability in the population. The causes include the 2022 economic crisis, rising inflation, unemployment, and unsustainable interest rates. Some people are forced to sell their furniture to pay higher prices for food and medicine, analysts report.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has sounded the alarm, observing that Sri Lanka’s household debt crisis has intensified since 2023, this according to UNDP Resident Representative in Sri Lanka Azusa Kubota.
Citing alarming data from the 2023 Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MPI), Kubota notes that debt is the main factor of vulnerability with at least 33.4 per cent of the population, already burdened by unsustainable debt for essential goods, including food and medicine.
To increase efforts, the UNDP is calling for broader collaboration, announcing the second phase of its private sector giving facility, focused on assisting women-led businesses and improving financial education nationwide.
The first phase successfully activated over US$ 6 million to assist communities at the height of the economic crisis.
Although local moneylenders seemingly offer high-interest loans during emergencies in a friendly manner, borrowers often end up paying interest for the rest of their lives.
Since 2022, when the island nation experienced its worst economic crisis, inflation has increased the prices of raw materials, energy, and transportation, negatively impacting sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. Thus, to maintain profit margins, companies opted to cut their workforce.
Currently, over 50 per cent of households are burdened by debt, struggling to meet repayments amid the rising cost of living. As a result, a high percentage of them rely on loan sharks and microfinance institutions, which charge high interest rates.
People end up trapped in cycles of debt, like what people faced in the northern and eastern parts of the country about 10 years ago, which saw many people take their own lives.
When import duties and indirect taxes are imposed, and subsidies are removed, people have to pay higher prices for basic necessities, including medicine, food, and fuel,” economic analysts Sashikala Dharmawardana and Amanda Hewapthirana told AsiaNews.
Since Sri Lanka relies on imports even for basics such as rice, dhal, sugar, milk, and now salt, the amount of money needed to support a family has increased significantly.
“Household incomes are inadequate to keep pace with the rising cost of living,” they add. “People are forced to take out loans or sell jewelry and household items, including furniture, because even their small savings have gone. Due to the current crisis, most people are unable to repay their loans, and new loans are being contracted to repay old ones.”
Although daily wages have increased from 1,000 to 3,000 rupees over the past three years, job opportunities have declined, making monthly income insufficient for basic needs.
“Because state and commercial banks only grant loans to people with assets or guarantors after assessing the borrower’s creditworthiness, small farmers, fishermen, daily wage earners, and low-income workers are unable to access such loans,” the analysts add.
As a result, low-income workers and daily wage earners have turned to loans to cover living expenses.
This crisis has depleted household savings and emergency funds, while microfinance companies exploit people by offering daily, weekly, and monthly loans at high interest rates, targeting vulnerable people because credit is their only means of survival,” they report.
Many people directly affected by the debt crisis are unable to voice their concerns or fight against exploitation, as their time and work are devoted to daily survival.
The government has failed to provide adequate social assistance to low-income and daily wage earners. The scope of cash transfers and food aid is limited and does not reach vulnerable people.
Although the Aswesuma programme, a new welfare programme to alleviate poverty and improve social equity, offers between 3,000 and 15,000 rupees per month depending on family size and vulnerability, delays in handing out the aid and red tape have prevented timely assistance.
By Uditha Jayasinghe Courtesy uk.finance.yahoo.com
COLOMBO (Reuters) -Sri Lanka’s garments sector is pinning its hopes on further discussions with the U.S. government after Donald Trump’s administration’s 30% tariff on the nation has placed it at a disadvantage to some of its biggest rivals.
The United States has accounted for about 40% of Sri Lanka’s apparel exports. Last year, they were worth about $1.9 billion, industry data shows.
But in a letter on Wednesday, Trump notified Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the 30% tariff from August 1, a rate well above the 20% levy faced by one of its major competitors Vietnam.
The U.S. tariff on neighbouring Bangladesh was, however, set at 35%, while Cambodian exports face a 36% levy. Tariffs on India, also a big U.S. supplier, have yet to be made public.
“If this is the end number, Sri Lanka is in trouble because our competitors, such as Vietnam, have received lower tariffs,” Yohan Lawrence, of the Joint Apparel Associations Forum, or JAAF, representing the largest apparel companies, told Reuters.
“But we are hopeful we can continue discussions.”
The government on Thursday said it was continuing talks with Washington.
“Our intention is to get the best rate for Sri Lanka so it’s a balancing act we are taking forward,” Duminda Hulangamuwa, senior presidential adviser, told reporters.
India is potentially the biggest threat to Sri Lanka’s clothing industry.
“India as the regional giant can be the game changer. If theirs (tariff) is similar to Vietnam, the impact would be considerable,” said Raynal Wickremeratne of Softlogic Stockbrokers.
Sri Lanka’s apparel exports to the United States in the first five months of 2025 were $747 million. That compared with apparel exports for the whole of last year of $1.9 billion to the U.S. and $4.8 billion worldwide, JAAF data shows. The exports are the country’s third largest source of foreign currency.
As the U.S. directs some of its most punishing tariffs at China, which faces a 55% levy, U.S. clothing imports from China fell to their lowest monthly level in 22 years in May.
Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Governor Nanadalal Weerasinghe said on Thursday it was too early to measure the wider economic impact of the tariff announcement on Sri Lanka’s economy.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund said Sri Lanka’s economic outlook remains positive, despite significant risks to macroeconomic and social stability from global trade policy uncertainties.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Writing by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Barbara Lewis)
a Bill for the amendment or for the repeal and replacement of or which is inconsistent with the provisions of paragraph (2) of Article 30 or of paragraph (2) of Article 62 which would extend the term of office of the President or the duration of Parliament, as the case may be, to over six years,
In late May 2025, Tokyo announced that it would welcome one lakh (100,000) skilled workers from Bangladesh over the next five years. This initiative will be formalized through memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET) and Japanese partners. By 2040, Japan’s labour shortage is expected to reach around 11 million, while Bangladesh’s youth are eager for jobs. However, a big question arose: will this initiative deliver mutual benefits, or will missteps strain the hard-earned trust between Dhaka and Tokyo? Let’s explore what we can discover.
Directly speaking, this potential has a high chance of bringing better benefits to Bangladesh if carefully managed. First of all, it will create a massive employment opportunity for Bangladeshi unemployed youths. Actually, at the time of Bangladeshi’s struggle for a high-paying job, it will truly appear as a highly cherished blessing. Second, this activity will leverage our economy, injecting millions of dollars in remittances. Bangladesh Bank (BB) data show that Bangladesh received $112.99 million in remittance inflows from Japan in FY 2022-23. Now, think about what would happen if 100,000 workers could successfully land there for dedicated jobs? It might be a billion-dollar opportunity. It also helps to maintain financial stability, supporting our development and growth significantly without external debt.
Third, working in Japan offers more benefits beyond monetary compensation. It provides valuable skills development and management philosophy. Japan’s workplaces are famous for practices like Kaizen (continuous improvement) and the 5S methodology (a disciplined 5-step approach to organizing the workplace). Bangladeshi workers can fulfil their thirst for knowledge by learning total quality management (TQM), time management, lean production, job rotation, and other relevant skills. Over time, this knowledge could elevate Bangladesh’s industries. Additionally, Japanese-returning Bangladeshi employees will have preferences for working in Japanese institutions in Bangladesh.
Fourth, Chief Adviser Prof. Muhammad Yunus enthused, ‘This initiative will open the door for Bangladeshis not only to work but also to know Japan.’ The flow of workers fosters deeper cultural connections, working as an informal ambassador of Bangladesh in Japan. Prior logics may depict Japan as the only opportunity, but this is not the only scenario. To transform the benefit into reality, we need to address the significant challenges and cultural gaps.
Japanese workplaces are highly disciplined and group-oriented. They frequently emphasize long-term commitment, the senpai-kohai system (senior-junior relations), consensus and collective harmony, the ringi system (bottom-up decision-making system), and believe in an immaculately organized workspace. But these tendencies are comparatively unfamiliar in Bangladesh. Instead, we concentrate on the more centralized decision-making.
Training and language constraints are another hurdle. The Daily Star quotes a foreign ministry official warning, We haven’t been able to train enough people” to meet these standards. Bangladesh has lacked sufficient Japanese language teachers. Besides, Bangladesh should scale up vocational programs quickly. These two nations have significant variations in workproductivity. They (Japanese) are used to working long hours and giving meticulous attention to details. Their tendency to maintain a strict schedule is also a significant challenge for Bangladeshi people.
Different social norms are critical issues in this perspective. Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country; in contrast, Shintoism and Buddhism covered a large portion of Japanese society. A friction may appear between bowing and a handshake. Furthermore, Japanese heavy omotenashi (hospitality) is comparatively fresh and unique to Bangladeshi workers. These cultural variations and sensitivities can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications. The Japanese are very sensitive to crime rates and law violations, but we are often accustomed to breaking lawsfrequently. These types of activities may lead to reputational damage and undermine public support for the program.
So, what should Bangladesh do now? Bangladesh should make skills tests mandatory for visa processing. Besides, curriculum development is immediately urgent to offer in-depth knowledge about eldercare practices, Japanese language, and management philosophy, like understanding of 5S (Sort (Seiri), Set in Order (Seiton), Shine (Seiso), Standardize (Seiketsu), and Sustain (Shitsuke)), Kaizen. Ultimately, we have to align Japanese needs with our technical and training institute.
Bangladesh must ensure that selected candidates are not only qualified but also mentally and culturally prepared, and that they are well-informed about Japanese workplace norms, social customs, punctuality, and legal affairs. They must understand that they are the informal brand ambassadors of Bangladesh. We must take strict measures against unscrupulous manpower agencies. To maintain transparency, both nations should establish a bilateral monitoring committee, which can share regular data on performance, placements, and workers’ welfare, thereby helping to foster bilateral trust quickly. People-to-people support should be enforced to teach adaptability, where pre-migrants help newcomers.
Ultimately, the recruitment of 100,000 workers presents both opportunities and challenges for Bangladesh. If we can understand their work culture, then it’s truly a blessing; however, misunderstanding or disobeying it poses a risk to the hard-earned trust that has been established.
*About Author:
Mehedi Hasan, researcher and former student of Japanese Studies, Social Science Faculty, University of Dhaka. He can be reach at: mhmehedi505@gmail.com
Colombo, July 10 (Daily Mirror) – Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara today accused the government of mishandling tariff negotiations with the United States, claiming Sri Lanka had failed to secure meaningful benefits from the recent tariff reductions announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo, Jayasekara said the National People’s Power (NPP) government should be ashamed of its incompetence, noting that while Sri Lanka’s tariff rate on exports to the U.S. was reduced from 44% to 30%, the country missed an opportunity for greater concessions.
This cannot be called a positive moment for Sri Lanka,” he remarked. If the government had conducted negotiations with a proper, constructive approach, the country could have secured more relief. The government boasting about this as a success is laughable.”
Jayasekara pointed out that Sri Lanka could have obtained a larger reduction — possibly the highest among the countries listed by the U.S. President for tariff revisions — if it had approached talks strategically.
He also criticised the lack of an official government statement or strategy during the negotiations. They were too busy saying ‘I am the one’ instead of acting in the country’s interest, and that has led us to this unfortunate situation,” he said.
Highlighting trade imbalances, the MP noted that Sri Lanka exports about USD 3 million worth of goods to the U.S. while importing USD 368 million. He urged the government to prioritise measures to narrow the USD 2.6 million trade gap, warning that continued inaction would further destabilise the already fragile economy.
If this had been handled with the right vision and leadership, Sri Lanka could have capitalised on this opportunity,” Jayasekara added.
Colombo, July 10 (Daily Mirror) – The United States yesterday”s announcement of a 30% tariff on Sri Lankan imports marks a significant blow to the country’s export sector, with estimated losses projected between USD 1.2 to 1.5 billion over the next 12 months. However, former Ambassador Kananathan has emphasized that this development should serve not just as a setback but as a critical turning point.
This is a wake-up call for Sri Lanka’s export economy,” Kananathan said. Over-reliance on a single market, limited diversification, and a lag in innovation have left our industries exposed.”
The gap may widen further unless Sri Lanka shifts toward cost efficiency or niche product development and have a diverse export portfolio like Malaysia (electronics) or Vietnam (tech, furniture, seafood). The new 30% tariff is applied in addition to the existing 10%, effectively raising the total duty to 40%. goods are still more expensive than those from Malaysia, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam. This put Sri lanka on a price disadvantage. Tariff disadvantages may push U.S. buyers and investors to shift operations to Vietnam, Bangaladesh or India. This hurts FDI inflows, especially into Sri Lanka’s apparel sector, which employs hundreds of thousands. In the case of apparels despite the new tariff for Bangaladesh is increased to 35% Bangladesh remains cheaper than Sri Lanka.
This is due to lower production costs, high-volume capability,and lower factory costs due to cheap labor and material
He stressed that the urgent need for a strategic reset: We must seize this moment to recalibrate building a stronger, more diversified, and future-ready export model.
Kananathan pointed to regional integration as a key opportunity. Greater cooperation through platforms such as SAARC, BIMSTEC, and the pursuit of new Free Trade Agreements could offer Sri Lankan exporters improved market access and leverage.
He also highlighted the potential of technology-enabled exports. Sectors like software development, business process outsourcing (BPO), and financial services are immune to traditional trade barriers such as tariffs and offer substantial growth prospects. Scaling these industries should be a national priority.”
With the vulnerabilities of U.S. market dependence laid bare, Sri Lankan exporters are being urged to look outward. Markets in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East remain underexplored. The EU’s GSP+ scheme continues to provide preferential access, while regions such as India, ASEAN, and parts of Africa present significant untapped demand.
Kananathan’s forward-looking message said The road ahead will be challenging, but with the right reforms and strategic focus, Sri Lanka can emerge more resilient and competitive on the global stage
Despite a long fascination for the island nation, I did not volunteer for the Venceremos Brigade to Cuba during my college years. Finally, my wish to see the legendary island of anti-imperialist revolution—the so-called ‘last bastion of socialism in the western hemisphere’—came true.
I enjoyed Cuba’s resplendent land and waters, the vibrancy of its music and dance, and the warm hospitality of its racially integrated people. I visited the impressive places and monuments of its colonial and modern history, receiving a wealth of interesting and intriguing information from my wonderful Cuban guides and other sources.
The history of Cuba is one of struggle and transformation. The original Taino people were extinct due to the Spanish conquest. The Revolution of 1898 brought liberation under scholar-poet Jose Marti, only to be followed by US neocolonial rule from 1902 to 1959. During the latter part of this period, the Batista dictatorship and his American business and Mafia connections dominated the island.
The armed struggle culminating in the 1959 Revolution, led by Fidel Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, Che Guevara and others, transformed the nation. The Cuban Communist Party under Fidel Castro’s rule (1959-2008) implemented widespread confiscation and wealth redistribution. Throughout this period and up to date, the US has maintained occupation of Guantanamo Bay (the first US overseas military base) under a 1903 perpetual lease agreement following the Spanish-American War.
Cuba’s Present Crisis
Unfortunately, what I encountered in my homestays and travel around the island was far from the thriving socialist society I had hoped to see. The once magnificent buildings in Havana and other cities are dilapidated and the streets strewn with litter. Lacking reliable public transportation, people stand on streets around the island patiently waiting to catch rides from any vehicle that will stop—among them, the still widely used pre-Revolution American cars and horse-drawn carriages.
The island is currently facing its worst economic crisis since the 1959 revolution. Long and daily power cuts, scarce internet connection, food and medicine shortages, and high prices are the realities of present-day Cuba. Some staple items like beans are nowhere to be found; rice production has declined and much is now imported. Sugar, too, has become an import in Cuba, which, until recently, was the leading sugar exporter in the world.
People cannot make ends meet with their meager incomes—a doctor’s monthly salary is approximately US$50. Even by conservative World Bank estimates, 72% of all Cubans live below the poverty line. Beggars seem to be everywhere, with the African community descendant from slavery being the most economically victimized.
Young professionals, products of the island’s renowned free education and health care systems, are emigrating to the US, Europe, and elsewhere, leaving mostly the elderly behind. Cuba reportedly lost some 13% of its 11 million population between 2020 and 2024, due largely to emigration. Financial remittances from emigrants are essential for their families’ survival at home.
In private, people complain bitterly about government mismanagement and corruption, expressing concern about the island’s future and people’s survival. Given state authoritarianism and repression, there is no independent media, visible organized resistance, or public demonstrations.
The Cuban government blames U.S. sanctions and blockade, operative since the early 1960s, for the island’s economic strangulation. In contrast, the US and its Cuban-American supporters blame socialism for Cuba’s failures.
Notwithstanding claims to be a leader of the international Non-Aligned Movement, Cuba withstood the 1961 CIA-backed Cuban-American Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis by aligning itself with the Soviet Union, eventually becoming its client state. The dismantling of the Soviet Union in 1992 and the recent Covid crisis have dealt severe blows to the Cuban economy and society. The decline in tourism, one of the most important sectors of the Cuban economy, will be further impacted by Donald Trump’s recent statutory ban on U.S. tourism.
Is the opening of Cuba to neo-liberal capitalism—including global finance capital, the IMF, international intervention by the US (and its Cuban-American supporters awaiting return of land and business confiscated by the Cuban Revolution)—the solution to Cuba’s current economic crisis?
The Path Forward
Government mismanagement, corruption, repression and authoritarianism, economic collapse, agricultural decline, lack of employment, shortages of fuel and food, rising prices, powerlessness, despair and labor emigration characterize much of the world following neoliberal policies today. These countries also face the threats of international intervention, regime change, sanctions and blockades if they attempt to strike out on independent paths of economic and political development outside western-dominated neoliberalism.
Is BRICS the alternative to both authoritarian socialism and neoliberal capitalism, the path to resolving the crisis in Cuba and much of the world?
The Global South-led BRICS constitutes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates as well as ten partner countries including Cuba, Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Today, the BRICS countries together are estimated to account for 56% of world population, 44% of global GDP.
The BRICS alliance provides a much-needed platform to explore alternative mechanisms like the New Development Bank and bilateral trade agreements to reduce reliance on Western financial institutions, such as the IMF and currencies, specifically the U.S dollar. While BRICS rejects certain aspects of western dominated geopolitics and hierarchical North-South relations, it upholds neoliberal economic principles: competition, free trade, open markets, export-led growth and globalization, unfettered technological expansion.
BRICS aims to advance its members within the existing global capitalist order, rather than create a fundamental alternative to the capitalist paradigm which prioritizes profit-led growth before environmental sustainability and human well-being. As such, corporate hegemony, concentration of wealth by a global elite spanning the North and the South as well technological and military domination are not challenged. Neither does BRICS challenge political authoritarianism within its member countries or the possibility of the emergence of forms of authoritarian capitalism. Composed of countries unequal in size, economic and military power, BRICS may also easily reproduce unequal exchange and new forms of colonialism in south-south relations.
False Alternative
Although barely noticeable to a visitor, China is quietly replacing the former Soviet Union as Cuba’s benefactor, expanding its economic activities on the island. Since 2018, Cuba has joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the massive infrastructural project connecting some 150 countries around the world. While the US is tightening its trade blockade, China has become Cuba’s largest trading partner and the primary provider of technology for infrastructure, telecommunications, renewable energy sources, the tourism industry, and other important areas of Cuba’s development.
Some critics of US imperialism tend to see China as a benevolent alternative to US and western domination. There are claims that certain media outlets promoting such perspectives may be linked to a funding source associated with China. Even if it is true, the political and military intentions of Chinese economic expansion can only be known in the future.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China has increased its nuclear arsenal by 20% from an estimated 500 to over 600 warheads in 2025. According to US government sources, China has also established satellite intelligence infrastructure or ‘spy bases’ in Cuba that can target the United States commercial and military operations. Cuba, located only some 90 miles from the Florida coastline, could well be drawn into the geopolitical confrontation between the United States and China as it was during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, the Cuban Missile Crisis being a case in point.
Even though the world is moving towards an inexorable market and technologically controlled reality, the rationality of this trajectory must be questioned. The need for balanced ecological and social frameworks upholding bioregionalism, local control of resources, food self-sufficiency need to be considered. Freedom of expression, right to dissent, and collective organizing undermined by both neoliberal capitalism and socialist authoritarianism must be upheld. This requires the awakening of consciousness to create a human society founded on wisdom and generosity over competition and exploitation.
The words of the great nineteenth century Cuban patriot, Jose Marti (1853-1895) are still applicable to the transformation needed in both Cuba and the world:
“Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity.”
Asoka Bandarage has served on the faculties of Brandeis, Mount Holyoke and Georgetown and is the author of books including Colonialism in Sri Lanka; The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka, Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy, Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World and numerous other publications on global political economy and related subjects. www.bandarage.com
One with rich arable agricultural land, tea, rubber, coconut, round the Island fisheries, and the other a muddy newly independent nation, grappling with poverty, high unemployment, and a lack of natural resources.
Independence Gained:
4th Feb 1948 the population of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was approximately 7.1 million
9th Aug 1965 the population ofSingapore in 1965 was approximately 1,886,900.
Today Singapore rides high in the World, as a Highly Developed First World Rich country, with a Passport recognized by the world, entry without Visas.
The Number One Best Passport in the World Singapore – 193 destinations .
Today Sri Lanka is struggling as a Third World country with Sri Lankan passport holders have visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to a limited number of countries.
The Top Five Non-Corrupt countries in the world are-: Denmark – Finland – New Zealand – Singapore – Switzerland over thirteen years.
Whilst Singapore ranks highest as a non-Corrupt country, Sri Lanka ranks No. 32.
China may see a regional vacuum with a non-functional #SAARC, but it is unlikely to succeed in filling the gap with another regional entity.
China and Pakistan are reportedly trying to create a new regional bloc that can be an alternative to the increasingly dysfunctional South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). India is likely to be excluded from the initiative.
In a meeting held in Kunming on June 19, China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh apparently discussed the possibility of forming the new regional bloc to focus on economic integration, infrastructure development and regional connectivity.
India’s determination to isolate Pakistan and not engage with it has negatively impacted South Asian regionalism and the regional associations built around it, namely SAARC and South Asian Free Trade Association (SAFTA).
Can the SAARC gap be filled by China? And would doing so serve China’s strategic goals in the region?
SAARC has not held a formal summit since 2014, in keeping with India’s position of no engagement with Pakistan, a state it accuses of supporting terrorism.
India’s focus instead has been on strong bilateralism with its South Asian neighbours. So far, China has done the same by significantly building strong relations with South Asian countries.
China’s favourite South Asian nation by far is Pakistan, with whom they have an ‘all weather’ relationship.
Pakistan’s geopolitical dalliance with the US and its willingness to play proxy to US interests, however, stops short of its loyalty to China.
Even as India and China seek to improve their relations and deepen trade ties, the Sino-Pak relationship is a red light for India.
Pakistan’s perceived role in sponsoring terrorism against it deters India from building regional cooperation as it pressures its regional allies to shun Pakistan.
The smaller South Asia nations, however, have their own way of hedging and leveraging regional powers, and each has its own agenda.
Bangladesh courts China
Bangladesh’s relations with India took a nosedive after the recent regime change when India’s known favourite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a populist student led movement. It brought economist-technocrat Mohammad Yunus as interim head of government and Hasina took political asylum in India.
Yunus is systematically improving relations with Pakistan which had adversarial relations with Bangladesh ever since the painful and bloody independence from Pakistan in 1971, which India facilitated with a significant military role.
Moreover, Yunus also seeks to strengthen Bangladesh’s relations with China. Unlike with India, Bangladesh’s relations with China remain not just unchanged but deepening after the ouster of Hasina.
The difference is that while the Hasina Government took care of Indian sensitivities, Yunus has no such interest. Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen said that the changed regime in Dhaka has not set back China’s commitment to develop ties with Bangladesh.
Nepal’s equidistance
Nepal, which houses the SAARC Secretariate, hedges its foreign policy in regional geopolitics. Sandwiched between India and China, Nepal has a deep dependence on India for trade and transit but it also wants China’s development assistance.
Nepal benefits from India’s open-door (visa-less) entry for Nepali citizens. However, India also has the capability to arm-twist Nepal and has blockaded it in 1989 as well as 2015 and intervening not so subtly in its domestic politics.
Nepal has, however, learnt to balance between India and China. Nepal is a participant in China’s Belt and Road initiative but it also has development compacts with India. Nepal clearly favours non-alignment and non-entanglement, keeping away from the Sino-Indian rivalry.
Uneasy Bhutan and the Maldives
Bhutan remains uneasy about China’s declared claims for Bhutanese territory on the Doklam Plateau. The Tibet Autonomous Region of China has a 470-kilometer border with Bhutan.
India on its part has pressured Bhutan on occasion withdrawing subsidies on gas and kerosene (Bhutan is dependent on India for these) and imposing its goods and services tax on Bhutanese imports into India. These steps make Bhutan cautious about both India and China as the Bhutanese are sensitive about their identity and sovereignty.
Sri Lanka has also sought to balance between India and China.
It was an early reformer into neoliberal economic restructuring but started facing unprecedented political and economic crises since 2022 — due to a combination of factors that include the impact of Covid-19 on tourism, the Ukraine conflict, its earlier civil war with its Tamil minority, political corruption and international debt.
China has sought to mediate to smoothen the turbulent relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan but has not met with much success. However, it does have an economic relationship with the Taliban government in Afghanistan since it envisages expanding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) northwards to Afghanistan and then the Central Asian Republics. At the same time, China has concerns about Taliban’s links with radical Islamic groups especially the Uighurs present in Afghanistan.
With these geopolitical tugs and pulls between regional powers would China manage to build a SAARC-like organisation?
The prospect seems quite unlikely.
China is interested in advancing its trade and exercising economic leverage. Getting into any new formal regional organisation that competes with India pushed SAARC — even if it is defunct does not serve its purpose currently.
India and SAARC
As far as India and SAARC is concerned, India needs to revive a regional body. If not SAARC, then SAFTA. While India is plagued by the terror issue allegedly emanating from Pakistan, it cannot allow regionalism trade and related issues to be held hostage on account of the zero-sum game with Pakistan.
Moreover, putting pressure on smaller neighbours gives India the reputation of a regional bully — something that India implies about China of. India itself does not like the biggest bully, the US, pressuring South Asian countries, including India. It makes no sense for India, therefore, to do precisely what it criticises in others.
Clearly, most of the small regional states would like a regional organisation to vent their views. After all, most other regions have a working regional organisation that gives them collective heft, like ASEAN, the African Union, the Economic Commission for Latin America and so on.
At the same time, the smaller nations of South Asia neighbouring India and China would be unlikely to join a regional organisation that would alienate either of them. Both India and China understand that.
Anuradha Chenoy is Adjunct Professor, O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India. Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info.
President Trump has announced new tariffs on imports from seven additional countries—Sri Lanka, Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Iraq, and Libya—ranging from 20 to 30 per cent, effective August 1, 2025.
This move intensifies the US trade overhaul, with more countries expected to be named soon.
High tariffs have already been imposed on nations like Indonesia and Cambodia.
US President Donald Trump has issued a new round of tariff letters to seven more countries, escalating the administration’s sweeping trade overhaul. In letters shared via screenshots on Truth Social, tariffs were announced for Sri Lanka, Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Iraq and Libya, with duties ranging from 20 to 30 per cent on all imports to the US.
Starting August 1, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Iraq, and Libya will face a flat 30 per cent tariff on all exports to the US. Brunei and Moldova will be subject to a 25 per cent rate, while goods from the Philippines will be taxed at 20 per cent.
Starting on August 1, 2025, we will charge Sri Lanka a tariff of only 30 per cent on any and all Sri Lankan products sent into the United States, separate from all sectoral tariffs. Goods transhipped to evade a higher tariff will be subject to that higher tariff,” President Trump wrote in his letter to Sri Lankan President Aruna Kumara Dissanayake.
Similar notices were addressed to the leaders of the rest of the nations as well.
President Trump has confirmed more announcements are expected on Wednesday. “We will be releasing a minimum of 7 countries having to do with trade, tomorrow morning, with an additional number of countries being released in the afternoon,” he stated in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
Tariffs already declared in previous rounds include 25 per cent duties on imports from Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and Tunisia. South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina are facing 30 per cent tariffs, while Indonesia has been hit with a 32 per cent rate. A 35 per cent tariff has been imposed on goods from Bangladesh and Serbia. Thailand and Cambodia are subject to a 36 per cent levy, and the highest rate so far—40 per cent—applies to imports from Myanmar and Laos.
Thus far, only the UK, China, and Vietnam have secured finalised trade agreements with Washington.
U.S. President Donald Trump has added Sri Lanka to his growing list of trade targets, issuing a letter on Wednesday announcing a new 30% tariff on all imported goods from Sri Lanka.
The move comes as part of a broader tariff push aimed at multiple countries, with levies set to take effect from August 1, 2025, pending trade negotiations.
According to a copy of the letter posted on Trump’s social-media platform Truth Social, the proposed 30% tariff for Sri Lanka is a reduction from an earlier 44% rate floated in April this year. The same tariff rate will also apply to Algeria, Libya, and Iraq three of seven countries included in Wednesday’s wave of trade actions.
In the letter, Trump highlighted the longstanding trade imbalance between the United States and Sri Lanka, claiming the relationship has been “far from reciprocal” due to Sri Lanka’s tariffs, non-tariff policies, and trade barriers. He insisted that the new tariff was necessary to address what he described as persistent trade deficits, which he labeled a threat to U.S. economic interests and national security.
Starting on August 1, 2025, we will charge Sri Lanka a tariff of only 30% on any and all Sri Lankan products sent into the United States, separate from all sectoral tariffs,” the letter stated, adding that any attempts to bypass the tariff through transshipment would be met with higher penalties.
Trump further offered an incentive, saying Sri Lanka could avoid these tariffs if Sri Lankan businesses chose to manufacture products within the United States, promising expedited approvals for such ventures.
He also warned that should Sri Lanka retaliate by raising its own tariffs, the U.S. would increase the 30% levy by an equivalent amount.
Concluding the letter, Trump expressed hope for a long-term trading partnership but made clear that the tariffs could be adjusted upward or downward” depending on future relations between the two countries.
This latest announcement marks the seventh such tariff letter unveiled by Trump on Wednesday alone, targeting nations including Algeria, Brunei, the Philippines, Iraq, Libya, and Moldova underscoring an aggressive trade stance as part of his ongoing policy platform.
Colombo, July 09 (Daily Mirror)- President Anura Kumara Dissanayake should have known that the network of those who launched Easter Sunday attacks function under the present government as well, Opposition MP Mujibur Rahman said today.
The President recently said the government will have to subject its own self to a probe in order to find the truth behind the Easter Sunday attacks. He cannot grumble now by saying what he said a few days ago. He should have known that the network of those who led the Easter Sunday attacks functions under the present government as well,” MP Rahman told Parliament.
What the government should do now is to carry out a proper investigation on the Easter Sunday attacks. You have two able men with you now. Use Shani Abeysekera the current director of CID and secretary to ministry of Public Security Ravi Seneviratne to carry out an investigation,” he added.
Find out who took Sarah Yesmin away from Zahran’s house in the East,” he also said.
By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana, Courtesy Daily mirror
Colombo, July 9 (Daily Mirror) – Opposition Parliamentarian D. V. Chanaka told Parliament yesterday that the investigation into the Easter Sunday’s attack is being handled by two officers who had allegedly ignored over 90 prior warnings on the attack. Investigations on Easter Sunday attacks are handled by officers who face allegations, opposition MP D. V. Chanaka told Parliament today.
These two officers are the ones who neglected more than 90 pre warnings of Easter Sunday attacks. The commission appointed by former President Maithripala Sirisena has recommended action against these two officers,” the MP said.
One of these two officers who is now the secretary Ministry of Public Security and the other who is the head of intelligence are ones who walked into the JVP Headquarters at Pelawatte and held press conferences,” he added.
Furthermore, the MP said it was Ibrahim who was on JVP National list in 2015 who had funded the extremists who were involved in the Easter Sunday attacks.
Sri Lanka has to navigate its foreign policy within turbulent waters considering its pivotal location in the Indian ocean. Being the neighbor to India, a regional power which some consider an emerging superpower, and which shows a kind of political bi polarity, with shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels, often resulting from internal political dynamics, which in turn impacts on relationships with its neighbours. Indian investments in Sri Lanka are substantial and growing. Their concerns about their own strategic commercial interests and, security concerns are also growing on account of the interest on Sri Lanka by other players. The MOU they have signed with Sri Lanka perhaps is an indicator of their security concerns.
Being literally only a whisper away from the sea lane pathway of a country which many regard as already a superpower, China, and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s influence in Sri Lanka is certainly one irritant and a cause of worry for India.
BRI, a Chinese global infrastructure development strategy launched in 2013 which aims to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through massive investments in infrastructure projects like railways, roads, ports, and energy pipelines, has already invested in Sri Lanka. The Hambantota port project which is run by a Chinese company which has an 85% shareholding, and the Mattala airport, again built with Chinese funding. The Port city project which has granted a 99 year lease for 49 acres of land to China as compensation for reclaiming 660 acres of sea for Sri Lanka to set up its Port City (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59993386)
Secondly, the influence and interest that the US has in Sri Lanka, perhaps due to the interests that the two major rising powers India and China have on Sri Lanka, and which could impact on the US perhaps is a strategic concern for the US. It is possible that the recent renewed interest shown by US allies Australia and the UK, as well as Isreal, is perhaps a move to counter or at least exercise greater vigilance on what happens in Sri Lanka arising from Indian and Chinese interests. This perhaps is concerning for India.
The offering of 10,000 jobs for Sri Lankans in Isreal, the increasing Israeli presence in the country with tourist businesses apparently being set up with Sri Lankan partners, some say nominal partners, in order to meet legal requirements of the country regarding foreign ownership of commercial ventures, and the setting up of Chabad houses with reportedly four Chabad houses in Sri Lanka located in Colombo, Arugam Bay, Weligama, and Ella, is perhaps the establishment of a vigilance strategy at the least. The approximate number of Jewish nationals visiting the country as short term and long-term tourists is said to be around 25,000 annually, a steady increase over the last few years. Of course, the increasing presence and influence of Israel has been and continues to be of concern for many Sri Lankan Muslims, and others, who view this as a dilution of the strong and steady support Sri Lanka has always extended to the Palestinians, especially to those in Gaza who are being mercilessly persecuted by Isreal. No doubt this increasing Israeli presence and influence is a cause for concern for India as well.
In framing Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, specifically its defence policy, which is integral to foreign policy, the signing of the recent MOU with India and the atmosphere of secrecy surrounding its detail, has raised concern amongst many in Sri Lanka. The unwillingness to be open ended about the entirety of the MOU has added fuel to the fire. It appears to be a short-sighted act on the part of a government which has prided in open government.
Having said this, the MOU also has to be viewed from the context of the other interests” described above, and examine and evaluate the strategic content and direction it entails from a long term perspective. Although to the best of the writers knowledge, the Sri Lankan government has not released details of this MOU, Economy Next (https://economynext.com/) had published what it has referred to as the detailed MOU on the 15th of May 2025. This document titled Sri Lanka’s Defence Cooperation MoU with India by Shihar Aneezmay be viewed by following the link (https://economynext.com/sri-lankas-defence-cooperation-mou-with-india-220788/). Viewers are encouraged to view this document as it is an important document that potentially could have far reaching implications for Sri Lanka in the long term.
Economy next states that It is a very detailed document with 12 articles and According to a text of the document obtained by Economy Next the nine-page defence cooperation MOU jointly signed by Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Sampath Thuyacontha and High Commissioner to India Santosh Jha contains 12 articles ranging from scope of the cooperation to termination clause.
The Indian High Commission in Colombo declined to comment on the text of the MoU and said it cannot confirm the contents of MOU between two States, as that is strictly between official authorities of the two States and is subject to mutual confidentiality”. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry also declined to comment on the contents in the MoU. But officials from both countries have indicated that the Defence Cooperation MoU has only formalized the already existing informal procedures related to the defence of both countries. The MoU has included topic such as exchange of personnel, training of defence personnel, exchanges other than training, cooperation in defence industry, technology, and research, financial arrangements, and protection of classified information among many others. It said the MoU will remain in place for five years, but both countries will have the right to terminate the MoU at any time with three months advance written notice to the other country”
While the writer is not conversant with MOUs between Sri Lanka and other countries, the extent of this MOU and its detail does raise some questions and concerns. Besides the 12 articles, there are 55 sub clauses in the document giving it perhaps the look of a document which is more than an MOU as what many understand as an MOU. It does raise some speculation whether the many sub clauses in it gives it a flavour of a document which is more than mere understandings although article 1 of the document titled SCOPE OF COOPERATION lays the basis for the extent of cooperation between the two countries in defence related matters. This says When carrying out cooperation activities under this Memorandum of Understanding, the Parties commit themselves to respect the national and military laws and regulations of the Parties and the relevant principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, which includes sovereign equality of States, territorial integrity and inviolability, and non-intervention in the internal affairs of the Parties and that neither Party shall allow the use of its territory for activities harmful to the national security of the other”
The discussion on the MOU and its specifics is one thing, but its impact and implications on Sri Lanka’s foreign policy vis a vis the other interests” outlined earlier are another important matter. It is also common-sense prudence to acknowledge that India has originated and signed this MOU with Sri Lanka essentially in its own interests rather than Sri Lanka’s interests, although there are positives for Sri Lanka as well. On the one hand, a positive would be that other interested parties would get a clear message as to India’s role in Sri Lankan security and defence in the event of any overt or covert threat from any other interested party. On the other hand, relying solely on India for Sri Lanka’s defence and security, particularly as the MOU is based on the strategic vision of its current leadership, could be a negative if the political dynamics within India changes within the next five years (the duration of the current MOU), and the political interests of regional States becomes crucial when framing national priorities. Even presently and certainly in the past, the priorities of say Tamil Nadu has had, and probably still have a significant impact on relations with Sri Lanka which could have a bearing on the MOU, in particular on the Indian side.
While recognising the reality of India, it’s largeness and its economic and military power and its proximity to Sri Lanka, as well as its cultural links to Sri Lanka, it would be futile to criticise this MOU without considering several other factors that impact on the defence and security of Sri Lanka. No doubt, while the country’s foreign policy should be based on a Sri Lanka first” principle, it is easier said and done to do that considering the economically weak position the country is in, the interests that several other countries have in Sri Lanka and the advantages they entail to the country and the geopolitical considerations that the country has to consider when framing its foreign policy. A country recovering very slowly from bankruptcy, a dysfunctional political and administrative system that is slowly attempting to recover from its mishaps including corruption at all levels, and which requires a very significant economic growth to lift it to a new economic height, and social structure realignment to ensure wealth and benefits are more equitably distributed, are factors to consider when framing its foreign policy from a more futuristic point of view where the future will be vastly different to the past and its players will not be the ones on the stage now.
Framing a Sri Lanka first foreign and defence policy will require a substantial balancing act and a cultural shift in how the country perceives its future and its relationships with the players that matter for Sri Lanka’s transformation. Past circumstances have changed and what may have been relevant and appropriate then, may not be so now as circumstances are different. However, while foreign investments are crucial for the country’s economic development, the balancing act between Sri Lanka’s long-term interests and economic interest needs to be within the framework of a strategic foreign policy which considers possible long-term consequences arising from such decisions. The following significant decisions are noted as ones that may have negative long-term consequences.
The MOU signed with India. Concerns expressed, leaving aside politically motivated tirades, needs to be addressed. As noted in this article, the MOU could become a double-edged sword if political circumstances change in India.
The decision taken in 2017 to grant a 99-year lease to China for 20 hectares of reclaimed land (49 acres), (It was a reversal of a previous decision to grant it freehold to China, but on Indian objections, it had been changed to a 99-year lease). Does the country know what China can and cannot do on this soil in the heart of Colombo? It is mentioned that the 20 hectares of land China holds within the Colombo Port City development in Sri Lanka is primarily intended for commercial and financial purposes within a designated special economic zone. China cannot use this land for military purposes as explicitly ruled out in the agreement, though there are ongoing concerns about potential future pressure on Sri Lanka to allow such use.
The 99-year lease for the Hambantota port and approximately 15,000 acres of surrounding land in Sri Lanka granted to a Chinese company, China Merchants Port Holdings in 2017. This land was leased as part of a broader agreement related to the port’s development and the establishment of a special economic zone.
The agreement signed in 2020 by Sri Lanka and Israel to allow Israel to immediately hire 10,000 farm workers from Sri Lanka to replace 20,000 Palestinian agricultural workers who were banned from Israel and 8,000 foreign workers that fled Israel due to the war. In January 2024 the government of Sri Lanka also began talks with Israel to send an additional 20,000 Sri Lankans for jobs in the Israeli construction sector. In a multi racial country where Muslims play a significant role, the encouragement given to Israel which is an effective military super power with an ever widening reach in many countries but which has unleashed genocide in Gaza, could destabilise the social equilibrium in Sri Lanka.
Conclusion
The question to be asked is whether these decisions will be advantageous or not to Sri Lanka in the longer term, and whether future generations will have to face the consequences of the partisan decisions taken by the present generation politicians. The decision-making process related to such major issues needs scrutiny and a broader political decision-making process that brings in bi partisanship towards major foreign and defense policy decisions. In this context, while the detailed mechanics of operational aspects will have to be worked out, in principle consideration should be given to making the President the minister responsible for foreign policy and defense and including the Opposition leader in these areas for key policy decision making processes. Additionally, a parliamentary oversight committee comprising all parties represented in Parliament introduced to undertake oversight on behalf of the people of the country. It would be in the long-term interest of Sri Lanka for major such decision to be bi partisan exercises that would provide a greater degree of comfort and assurance to future generations that short term gain without considering long term consequences will be minimized.
The tenor and substance of such policy decisions have to be above partisan politics for the good of the country, and this would be the context for a Sri Lanka first policy on foreign affairs and defense. Key commercial decisions must be taken within such a broad framework as they have the potential to cause more harm than good in the longer term. The competing interests of key players who are important for Sri Lanka’s economic and social revival also require consideration and a strategic balancing act undertaken to ensure Sri Lanka does not end up as the loser in the longer term. Politics is far more sophisticated than it was in the past, and the political culture in the country and amongst politicians needs to change if it is to move up the ladder of economic strength and social equity and equality, and its security, assured through more collective decision making processes.
We never thought a pen could undo what our war heroes achieved in May 2009. Yet, since December 2024, secret MoUs signed between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have begun dismantling Sri Lanka’s territorial and constitutional sovereignty—not with tanks, but through contracts. These agreements encroach upon lands and institutions constitutionally mandated to protect the Buddha Sasana — the island’s spiritual existence for over 2,300 years. The Buddha Sasana has been the foundation of peace, non-violence, and unity among communities. To weaken it is to weaken Sri Lanka itself.
Buddhist Jurisprudence remains an ancient System of Governance that cannot be replaced or erased.
Buddhist jurisprudence is not merely religious law” but civilizational law.
Vinaya guides monks, and Dasa Raja Dharma (Ten Duties of a Righteous King) guided rulers—this ethical framework long predates modern constitutions.
Historically, the Sasana managed land, education, health, and local disputes through a decentralized, moral system.
The Buddha Sasana governed justly through kings, colonialism, and into the modern state—it must remain the oldest law of the land.
Global Buddhist Solidarity
Article 9 of the Sri Lankan Constitution is not exclusivist; under Buddhist kings, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims lived peacefully—without forced conversions or religious wars—because Buddhist principles foster compassion and tolerance, protecting everyone’s religious rights.
Defending Buddhist heritage means defending freedom from foreign control.
Sri Lanka, the oldest unbroken Buddhist nation, faces a critical test: if it falls to strategic colonization, the future of Buddhist heritage worldwide is also at risk.
Constitutional Protections
Article 9 states:
The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana.” This is a binding obligation, not symbolic.
The Supreme Court, in rulings on the Thirteenth Amendment and Provincial Councils Bill (1987), upheld that the state’s unitary character and Buddhism’s foremost place cannot be diluted.
The Temple Lands Ordinance (1931) and Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance (1931) protect temple lands under Article 16.
Even colonial rulers respected the spiritual independence of the Sasana. No President today can override that authority.
State actions—including secret or unratified executive agreements—must not violate constitutional protections.
Yet secret deals handing over infrastructure, data, ports, religious sites, mineral resources, and coastal areas to foreign powers without public scrutiny violate Article 3’s principle that sovereignty is in the people and is inalienable.”
India’s encroachment: Signed, Sealed, and Dangerous
Sri Lanka is being systematically bridged to Indian strategic, economic, and digital interests while granting India immunity from prosecution.
If you doubted such an eventuality unfolding – piece these dots together:
Defence and Foreign Policy:
A 5-year secret MoU on defence with India, whose contents remain undisclosed, but reportedly restrict Sri Lanka’s ability to engage militarily with other nations, especially China.
Sri Lanka joins the Colombo Security Conclave, aligning its maritime surveillance and naval strategy with India — effectively subordinating its neutrality.
Energy & Resources:
A Trincomalee Energy Hub is being developed with Indian and UAE partnership, transferring critical energy infrastructure to foreign hands. This recalls the landmark Supreme Court ruling when a US-Japanese company attempted to take off with Sri Lanka’s phosphate & Justice Amarasinghe clearly stated the Govt’s role is only that of a temporary custodian & that resources of Sri Lanka belong not only to this generation but future generations as well.
Justice Mark Fernando in Environmental Foundation Ltd. v. Mahaweli Authority(1993) reaffirmed that natural resources are held in trust by the State for the people, and cannot be alienated arbitrarily. This reinforces the public trustee principle — government is a caretaker, not an owner.
India gains access to offshore wind, solar, and mineral extraction, bypassing Parliament — including phosphate and ilmenite vital to future-tech manufacturing.
Culture and Regional Fragmentation:
Indian-backed Ramayana Trails, temple restorations, kovil funding, and scholarships disproportionately target the North, East, and Central Provinces — subtly eroding national cohesion & usurping the Buddhist ethos while a systematic effort to chase away Buddhist theroes from these areas & destroy historic Buddhist archaeological sites is taking place.
Ferry services between Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai risk demographic manipulation through irregular migration and soft settlement.
Digital Colonialism:
National systems like SL-UDI (being developed using MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform), GovPay (reportedly being aligned with the architecture of India’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface)., and DigiLocker are built on Indian digital infrastructure.
India may gain access to Sri Lankans’ biometric, financial, and personal data — an externalization of national identity – nowhere in the world has such a scenario happened.
Strategic Assets:
In May 2025, Colombo Dockyard signed a naval manufacturing and repair MoU with India’s Mazagon Dock Ltd — placing India inside Sri Lanka’s western defence-industrial corridor. India is also running Colombo West Terminal & is likely to align with John Keells Holdings to renew lease for SAGT while also controlling major transshipment arriving at the Jeya Container Terminal – taken together India can easily prevent inflow of goods if it so wishes as was done to Nepal during the economic embargo.
Other MoUs Violate the Buddha Sasana Doctrine
Sri Lanka’s sovereignty is threatened not only by India. MoUs with other nations also raise serious concerns:
United States – MCC Compact: Though politically paused, land digitization and parcel valuation projects began without public consent, violating the indivisibility of Sasana land.
Japan – Light Rail Transit MoU (Colombo): The project threatens Buddhist temples and heritage sites, with planned relocations and disturbances made without religious consultation.
China – Hambantota Port Lease (2017): While defensive in intent, the lease has created perceptions of foreign enclaves, raising fears about long-term sovereignty and access to nearby Buddhist heritage zones.
Singapore – Trade & Education MoUs: Full access to Sri Lanka’s data and education policy reforms by foreign consultants undermine the Buddha Sasana’s role in guiding ethical and cultural education.
Globally, courts have intervened to protect sovereignty in such cases.
In People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India (Aadhaar case), the Indian Supreme Court ruled that privacy and consent are intrinsic to dignity — a precedent relevant to Sri Lanka’s concerns about data outsourcing.
Similarly, the Singapore Court of Appeal in Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program v. Independent State of Papua New Guinea (2020) upheld protections against arbitrary expropriation, confirming the need to safeguard national assets even across borders.
Ironically, India has itself resisted foreign encroachment on its digital and territorial sovereignty, banning Chinese apps in 2020 citing data sovereignty,” and opposing OBOR over territorial integrity. If these principles apply to India, they must equally apply to Sri Lanka. Sovereignty is not selective.
The ICJ’s 2010 Advisory Opinion on Kosovo reaffirmed the right of peoples to maintain their cultural and historical integrity — a principle Sri Lanka must uphold.
Article 9 states:
The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana.”
This is a binding obligation, not symbolic.
The Supreme Court, in rulings on the Thirteenth Amendment and Provincial Councils Bill (1987), upheld that the state’s unitary character and Buddhism’s foremost place cannot be diluted.
The Temple Lands Ordinance (1931) and Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance (1931) protect temple lands under Article 16.
Even colonial rulers respected the spiritual independence of the Sasana. No President today can override that authority.
State actions—including secret or unratified executive agreements—must not violate constitutional protections.
Yet secret deals handing over infrastructure, data, ports, religious sites, mineral resources, and coastal areas to foreign powers without public scrutiny violate Article 3’s principle that sovereignty is in the people and is inalienable.”
Sri Lanka is at a historic crossroads.
Sri Lanka is not only battling for territorial & political sovereignty but the continuance of its civilizational spiritual heritage. How far custodians of the Nation cherish this & how far they are compromising this heritage by signing MOUs & secret deals cannot be ignored further. While we question the intentions of foreign players, our criticism must first be directed at the temporary custodians from those in the public sector to the higher echelons of leadership & question their actions ceding the nation, its resources & assets, its people & its Buddha Sasana heritage.
Let this be our solemn vow: no MoU, no foreign power, no local custodians shall divide or diminish the Buddha Sasana. The spiritual heart of Sri Lanka will remain indivisible, inviolable, and eternally sovereign.
In a significant step toward fostering community resilience and inclusive development, NDB Bank has partnered with World Vision to implement a targeted initiative aimed at uplifting women-headed households through integrated farming solutions and financial empowerment.
Formalized through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), this partnership will directly support 10 women-headed households in Kilinochchi District, with a particular focus on those facing livelihood insecurity and limited access to financial services. Through a combination of climate-resilient home gardening, small-scale livestock rearing, and essential financial literacy training, the initiative seeks to promote sustainable income generation, improved nutrition, and long-term financial independence.
Under the programme, World Vision will facilitate delivering of agri-based technical assistance and input support, including seeds, plants, livestock, and tools, alongside structured training to equip participants with practical knowledge in home-based cultivation and animal husbandry. NDB Bank, in turn, will play a critical role in enabling financial access, by conducting financial literacy sessions, facilitating account openings, and supporting the long-term financial management of the participating households.
Commenting on the partnership, Lasantha Dassanayaka, the Head of NDB Bank’s Corporate Sustainability Committee, At NDB, we believe that building a resilient nation begins with empowering families at the grassroots. This partnership with World Vision aligns with our broader sustainability agenda, by bringing together food security, financial inclusion, and dignified livelihood opportunities for some of Sri Lanka’s most underserved communities.”
Dr. Dhanan Senathirajah, National Director of World Vision Lanka, also shared his views on the partnership saying, All of World Vision’s work has just one focus – the sustained wellbeing of the most vulnerable children. We can achieve only a part of it if we don’t empower their parents and caregivers with stable livelihoods and financial literacy. We greatly value this partnership with NDB which can multiply the impact and we are excited for the transformation it can bring”.
Through this collaborative effort, beneficiaries will not only gain the tools to generate sustainable income from their home gardens and livestock units but also be integrated into the formal banking system, giving them the foundation to grow their savings, access credit when needed, and plan for the future with greater confidence.
As women continue to play a growing role in driving household resilience and local economies, this initiative reflects NDB Bank’s ongoing commitment to fostering inclusive progress—particularly by equipping women with tools to lead in both livelihood creation and financial decision-making. By integrating practical skills with banking access, the project offers a foundation for long-term empowerment and growth.
As the initiative progresses, NDB Bank and World Vision will work jointly to monitor outcomes, provide follow-up support, and explore opportunities to scale the model further across other regions.
A total of 144,250 premises have been inspected island-wide during the National Mosquito Control Week implemented last week, the Media Spokesperson of the National Dengue Control Unit of the Ministry of Health, Community Medical Specialist Dr. Prasheela Samaraweera, said.
Speaking at a press conference today (08) to announce the progress of the activities conducted during National Mosquito Control Week, she explained that 35,495 sites were identified as possible mosquito breeding grounds.
Furthermore, Dr. Samaraweera stated that 4,275 premises with mosquito larvae were detected, adding that 3,812 red notices were issued and legal actions has been initiated against 982 premises.
She also noted that schools, government offices, factories, workplaces, and religious sites were among the locations identified as high-risk.
Inspections were carried out at 400 schools, with 226 found to have potential mosquito breeding sites.
The Community Medical Specialist further mentioned that 131,789 homes were inspected, and 31,967 were identified as having potential mosquito breeding sites.
Additionally, 955 government institutions were inspected, and 292 were identified as potential breeding grounds for mosquito larvae.
Meanwhile, 30,228 dengue cases and 16 related deaths have been reported island-wide, with most cases coming from the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, and Eastern provinces, Dr. Prasheela Samaraweera said.
We express grave concern over the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since 13 June 2025, which constitute a violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and the subsequent escalation of the security situation in the Middle East.
In the face of rising tensions with unpredictable consequences for international peace and security, as well as for the world economy, we underscore the urgent need to break the cycle of violence and restore peace. We call on all parties to engage through existing channels of dialogue and diplomacy, with a view to de-escalating the situation and resolving their differences through peaceful means.
We express serious concern over any attacks against peaceful nuclear installations that are carried out in violation of international law and relevant resolutions of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear safeguards, safety, and security must always be upheld, including in armed conflicts, to protect people and the environment from harm. In this context, we reiterate our support for diplomatic initiatives aimed at addressing regional challenges.
Civilian lives must be protected, and civilian infrastructure must be safeguarded, in full compliance with international humanitarian law. We extend our sincere condolences to the families of the victims and express our solidarity with civilians affected.
Guided by the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, BRICS remains committed to promoting international peace and security and to fostering diplomacy and peaceful dialogue as the only sustainable path toward long-term stability in the region. In this regard, we also reaffirm the necessity of establishing a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, in line with relevant international resolutions.
We call upon the international community to support and facilitate dialogue processes, uphold international law, and contribute constructively to peaceful settlements of disputes for the benefit of all humanity.
Palestinians at a GHF aid distribution site in Gaza being fired on by American security” contractors. Still from a video shot by a contractor and given to the Associated Press.
There’s no precise number for how many Palestinians have been starved to death by Israel’s embargo on food entering Gaza. But there is a number for how many Palestinians have been killed trying to keep from starving to death at food distribution sites, many of them by Israeli gun or mortar fire: 549, with 5 to 10 more Palestinians being killed every day. More than 4,000 have been wounded.
These killings weren’t accidents. They weren’t provoked. They didn’t come about as an attempt to quell riots. The people killed were not collateral damage in attempts to kill Hamas fighters. The shootings were not in retaliation for any violence from the Palestinians. Israeli troops were ordered to fire on Palestinians coming to get scraps of food handed out by the Christian fundamentalists and mercenaries who run the food distribution sites set up by Trump and Netanyahu. Let’s repeat that: Israeli troops were ordered to kill starving, unarmed civilians who were trying to get food for their families.
These killings aren’t news to anyone who has been paying attention to reports coming out of Gaza from Palestinian journalists, eye-witness testimony from survivors of the attacks, and doctors who have treated the wounded and examined the bodies of the dead.
The news is that the Israeli paper Haaretz got Israeli soldiers to describe how their superiors ordered them to fire into crowds of people seeking food at aid distribution sites that Israel itself had designated. These sites have become the latest kill zones for Palestinian civilians. In the place where I was, between one and five people were killed every day,” an IDF soldier told Haaretz. They’re fired upon as if they were an attacking force: no crowd-dispersal methods are used, no tear gas — they shoot with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade machine guns, mortars.”
Nearly all of Gaza has been on the brink of famine since the first week of March, when Israel imposed its latest embargo on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. As global pressure mounted against Israel for imposing a mass starvation policy on Palestinians in Gaza, the Netanyahu government turned to a newly created company with the backing of Trump, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, now run by Johnnie Moore, Jr. Moore is an evangelical Christian with close ties to Trump. Moore had hailed Trump’s plan to assume control of Gaza, saying: The USA will take full responsibility for the future of Gaza, giving everyone hope and a future.”
Atar Riyad, a displaced Palestinian father of five from Beit Hanoun, whose wife is pregnant. Described to Al Jazeera the treacherous experience of trying to get his family food at aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation:
The Israeli military forced us into displacement. We ended up in Gaza City on the streets. I have a family. I have children who are all under the age of 15. My wife is pregnant. My financial situation is not easy. A few weeks ago I had to sell some of my belongings. I had a stroller that I used to push the gallons of water on. I had a bicycle too and other things I had to sell to buy flour. We have no food, no water. We don’t have anything. I went to the US aid distribution sites and to the aid trucks. I went there seven or eight times to get food. About 20,000 people gather at the distribution sites along the Netzarim corridor early in the morning, but only 2,000 manage to get any food parcels. Why? Because of the overcrowding. Because of the number of people creating chaos. The food parcels they put in front of us are not enough compared to the number of aid seekers. The American site is a dead end. They told me that there is American aid in Netzarim. I went there. I walked 15 kilometers to look for some flour, rice or lentils. I couldn’t get anything. I went to the Netzarim aid site three or four times. All in vain. We go there only to find death in front of us. There was no food or water. There was only death. People were lying dead in the sand in front of us. I don’t know what to say. This situation is very hard. They told us there is aid in the trucks. Then, we went to the trucks. The trucks move very fast, running over people. The trucks were running on top of people! Today, I am unable to do anything. I used to weigh 90 kilos. Now I weigh only 58 kilos. Things are hard, really hard in Gaza. We are subjected to the worst torture in the world.
These distribution sites, which operate for only one hour each morning, are not a serious attempt to avert the famine in Gaza that Israel engineered and continues to enforce. They are a distraction and a half-hearted one. Worse, they serve as a magnet, drawing thousands of desperate Palestinians together within the scope of Israeli guns and tanks. The humanitarian aid sites, like the humanitarian zones for Palestinian tent camps where so many families have been burned alive as they sleep by Israeli airstrikes, have become, in the words of one Israeli soldier, killing fields.”
The first GHF aid station opened on May 25 and was immediately met with violence that killed three Palestinians and injured dozens. This set the daily pattern, where the promise of food served as bait to trap and kill unsuspecting Palestinian civilians.
On June 1, 32 Palestinians were killed and more than 250 wounded near the Rafah aid station, in what became known as the Witkoff Massacre,” after Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
On June 3, at least 27 Palestinians were killed and 184 were injured by an Israeli airstrike on the road leading to the Rafah distribution center.
On June 8, 13 Palestinians were killed and 173 wounded when Israeli forces fired on crowds at the Rafah aid site.
On June 9, 14 Palestinians were killed and 207 were injured at another GHF site.
On June 10, 36 Palestinians were killed and 207 were wounded at an aid site near Deir al-Balah.
On June 11, 25 Palestinians were killed at night, as they camped near a GHF distribution site and another 14 were killed during the day as they lined up to receive boxes of food.
On June 12, 26 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli drone strike on a crowd near an aid site.
On June 14, 29 Palestinians seeking aid were killed and more than 380 wounded in separate attacks at aid distribution sites.
On June 16, 23 Palestinians were killed and 200 wounded outside the Rafah aid site.
On June 17, 59 Palestinians were killed and 221 injured when Israeli drones, tanks and troops fired on a crowd at the Khan Yunis aid site.
On June 18, 12 Palestinians were killed and 72 wounded by Israeli gunfire and mortars while they waited for food trucks to arrive at the Deir al-Balah aid site.
On June 19, 12 Palestinians were killed and 60 were wounded at the aid site in the Netzarim Corridor.
On June 20, 23 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded by Israeli drone and tank fire at the aid site in central Gaza.
On June 21, 8 Palestinians were killed and more than a dozen were injured by Israeli gunfire at a GHF aid center.
On June 22, 6 Palestinians were killed and more than 20 were injured by Israeli troops at an aid site in central Gaza.
On June 24, at least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli drones and gunfire at the GHF site in southern Rafah.
On June 25, 25 Palestinians were killed and 30 were wounded by Israeli forces at the aid site near the Netzarim checkpoint.
On June 27, 18 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli drone strike as they assembled to get flour from a GHF site outside Deir al-Balah.
Most of the massacres have taken place in the morning, as Palestinians line up in front of the aid sites before the gates open, even though, as one Israeli soldier said, there was no danger to the forces. There’s no enemy, no weapons.”
[We’d open fire] early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range”, the soldier said. Once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire. I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire.”
The rations are meager by any standard, but critically so considering the ever-deepening crisis in Gaza, where 2.3 million Palestinians are starving, nearly two-thirds of them women and children. In its first 10 days of operation, GHF reported distributing 8.3 million meals, equivalent to less than four meals per person for every Palestinian in Gaza, or approximately one meal every two and a half days.
Even now, the aid sites are only distributing enough aid to feed each Palestinian in Gaza one meal a week. And most, perhaps even the majority, aren’t getting that. There are only four aid sites, and each is open for only one hour a day. The goal isn’t to feed Palestinians, but to pretend to be doing so. Yet people are so hungry they’re willing to risk their lives to get a small box of food.
From the opening days of the war, the Israeli plan has been to starve the Palestinians out of Gaza. The strategy for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza has been one of maximum brutality on every front, making the choice for Palestinians a cruel one: leave or die.
A combat brigade has no tools to operate against a civilian population in a combat zone,” another IDF soldier told Haaretz. Firing mortars to drive away hungry people is neither professional nor humane. I know there are Hamas members among them, but there are also people who simply want to receive aid…Every time we fire like this, there are casualties and deaths, and when you ask why a shell is necessary, there are never any smart answers.”
Both Biden and Trump have endorsed using humanitarian aid as a weapon: Biden with his ridiculous humanitarian pier and Trump with the aid distribution sites, where Palestinians are forced to line up in fenced lanes like cattle at an auction to get a box of pre-packaged rations, resembling the MREs of the Gulf War. That’s if they don’t get shot. The aid sites serve, in the words of the UN’s Tom Fletcher, as a fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”
The GHF operation is projected to cost $550 million. Yet, so far, the US has contributed only $30 million. Where’s the rest of the money coming from? Yair Lapid, the Israeli opposition leader, said that both GHF and Safe Reach Solutions (the private security company run by former CIA officer Philip Reilly) were actually shell companies constructed to conceal the fact that they were funded and controlled by the Israeli government. In the words of UNICEF’s James Elder, These are not humanitarians, they are people with guns.”
It’s not just the Israelis slaughtering defenseless Palestinians. By their own admission, American security contractors hired by GHF are engaging in the same murderous attacks on people seeking food, firing on them as if in sport, under rules of engagement that give them an open license to do whatever they want.” Two contractors told Associated Press reporters Julia Frankel and Sam Mednick this week that US mercenaries routinely toss stun grenades and pepper spray bomblets into lines of Palestinians, some of them holding their children, and fire rounds of live ammunition in all directions, into the air, into the ground, and at times toward the Palestinians.”
One of the contractors said that most of his heavily armed fellow contractors have little to no experience in these kinds of operations and view all Palestinians with suspicion. A video shot by one of the contractors records a conversation on how to disperse the crowd of Palestinians after the aid site had run out of food parcels. A contractor says that he’d called on the Israelis to have one of their tanks make a show of force.” Then there’s the sound of around 15 gunshots being rapidly fired off.
Whoo! Whoo!” A contractor exclaims.
Another one congratulates him: I think you hit one.”
Hell, yeah, boy!”
This has become routine,” a soldier said. You know it’s wrong. You feel that it’s wrong, that the commanders here are taking the law into their own hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe — you move on quickly. The truth is, most people don’t even stop to think about it.”
The aid site massacres are acts of state terrorism. By instilling the fear that even the helping hands are holding machines that might strafe you down at any moment, Israel is attempting to make Palestinians lose all hope that they can hold out long enough for the world to finally turn against Israel and force it out of Gaza. Even as the bodies pile up at a rate of 10 or 12 a day, these tactical acts of butchery are doomed to fail. Gaza is Palestinian land and here they will stay, against all odds.
This is an expanded version of a piece that ran in the June 28 edition of Gaza Diary.
Colombo, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka’s real estate sector is demonstrating robust signs of recovery and renewed investor confidence in 2025, buoyed by a stabilizing economy and favorable market conditions. The latest “Real Estate Market Outlook Report 2025 (REMOR25)” by LankaPropertyWeb (LPW) highlights a significant resurgence across the property landscape, with key indicators pointing towards sustained growth.
One of the most significant indicators of this recovery is the rapid appreciation of land prices in the Western Province. The report indicates an average year-on-year increase of 12% in the region for 2025. Suburban areas are leading this surge, with land prices in Colombo District’s suburban areas experiencing an average 20% increase. Piliyandala, for instance, recorded a 16% price increase, and both Athurugiriya and Homagama experienced 14% year-on-year growth. This trend suggests a shift in investor focus from the historically saturated city center to burgeoning suburban zones that offer strong infrastructure and development potential. In contrast, Colombo 1-15 saw a more moderate 7% price increase, underscoring the increasing appeal of outer-city investments. Beachfront lands are also in high demand, with southern coastal areas seeing average asking prices of LKR 2 million per perch, driven by tourism and interest from overseas buyers.
The report also notes that the residential apartment sector is beginning to stabilize following several years of sharp price swings. Year-on-year apartment sales prices increased modestly, with urban areas seeing rises from 0.2% to 2.8%, and suburban areas experiencing increases up to 2.9%. Rental prices have remained steady, particularly in high-end segments, reflecting sustained demand despite the broader market cooling. This shift indicates a cooling market environment and a transition from speculative activity to more structured, long-term investment behavior.
With an existing inventory of 37,000 units and an additional 8,200 expected by 2027, supply is ample, yet demand remains robust, especially for three-bedroom units. Overseas buyers account for a significant 27.7% of search traffic, according to LPW’s search traffic, emphasizing Colombo’s attractiveness to expats looking to invest, primarily due to the stabilizing environment and attractive square foot rates compared to the region and developed countries, when calculated in USD.
Housing demand in suburban locations has also picked up. Areas such as Malabe, Homagama, and Athurugiriya continue to gain traction among buyers due to improved infrastructure and relatively lower prices. Residential properties in Colombo 1–15 now start from LKR 60 million and above, while houses in key suburbs are priced from LKR 20 million. Rental yields in these markets remain healthy—around 3.5%—with monthly rents typically exceeding LKR 25,000.
Fueling this broad-based growth is the greater availability of affordable financing. Following a 7.75% cut to the Central Bank’s Overnight Policy Rate, most commercial banks now offer home loans at rates averaging around 10%. This has made property ownership more attainable, particularly for middle-income buyers, and has reactivated demand among developers and end-users alike.
Commenting on the release of the 2025 edition,Daham Gunaratna, Managing Director of LankaPropertyWeb, commented: We are proud to present the third edition of the Sri Lanka Real Estate Market Outlook Report, reinforcing our commitment to delivering timely, data-driven insights into one of the country’s most critical economic sectors. Over the past 12 months, we’ve observed a clear resurgence in real estate activity, with approximately 25 new developments launched and over 2,500 new units introduced to the market. In addition, several projects that had been on hold between 2020 and 2023 have now reached completion, adding around 3,600 new apartment units. As the broader economy stabilises and investor confidence returns, this report offers a comprehensive view of the evolving market landscape and the path ahead.”
With land prices climbing, the apartment market stabilizing, and access to credit steadily improving, Sri Lanka’s real estate market is entering a promising new phase of recovery marked by improved transparency, cautious optimism, and long-term investment opportunities.
LankaPropertyWeb’s “Real Estate Market Outlook Report 2025” draws on over a decade of proprietary and public data, offering a comprehensive view of the evolving market landscape and future prospects. The report can be downloaded from LPW.LK/MOR25.
About LankaPropertyWeb LankaPropertyWeb is Sri Lanka’s leading real estate platform, offering comprehensive listings, market insights, and professional consultancy. With a commitment to data transparency and user trust, the company continues to support buyers, sellers, and developers across the island.
Modern discoveries in quantum physics have shaken the world: the soul does not disappear after death — it transitions into a parallel reality. What is this world, and why does science increasingly confirm ancient mystical ideas about the afterlife? In this video, you will learn shocking details from research on life after death, real testimonies from people who experienced clinical death, and hypotheses from renowned scientists such as Raymond Moody, Eben Alexander, and Michael Newton. We will reveal the mystery of parallel worlds and explain how human consciousness continues to exist after physical departure. Watch until the end to understand what truly awaits us after death.
Between December 2024 and May 2025, a pen — not a gun — redrew Sri Lanka’s future. A series of bilateral pacts and MoUs signed between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are systematically converting Sri Lanka into a de facto Indian strategic satellite. What follows is not alarmist — it’s what has already been signed, and what it signals for Sri Lanka’s future. A party that once warned against Indian imperialism is now surrendering sovereignty through undisclosed agreements. The nation must wake up as should all politicians & political parties setting aside petty political agendas to safeguard the Nation’s Sovereignty.
ALARMING STRATEGIC SUBORDINATION – THE FRIGHTENING CONSEQUENCES
1. Strategic Subordination to India
India now wields disproportionate influence over Sri Lanka’s:
Defence: Secret MoU, naval surveillance cooperation, and joint exercises.
Ban clauses that restrict international arbitration.
2. Data & Digital Protection
Mandate local data hosting.
Audit foreign control of SL-UDI, GovPay, digital IDs.
3. Foreign Policy Rebalancing
ReaffirmNon-Aligned Movement.
Review allQuad-aligned military and economic deals.
Invite broader partnerships (Africa, ASEAN).
4. Protect Strategic Assets
State majority ownership of ports, energy grids, refineries.
Ban full foreign control over transmission or digital systems.
5. Cultural Balance
Equal or greater support for Sinhala, Buddhist, rural sites.
Monitor politicized temple/kovil funding in strategic regions.
6. Transparency & Public Engagement
Publishfull texts of all post-Sept 2024 MoUs.
Holdcitizen forums and debates on implications.
How the West & IMF/WB Will View the Unfolding Scenario
The West may quietly welcome India’s growing footprint — as long as it keeps China out, ensures regional stability, and maintains IMF compliance. India’s role in the QUAD makes this takeover geopolitically useful” for Indo-Pacific security aims.
However, if India overreaches — triggering public backlash, economic monopolies, or suppressing civic freedoms — the West may slowly shift. Embassies will likely begin supporting alternative civil society actors, opposition parties, and independent media to restore checks and balances.
For the IMF and World Bank, the primary lens remains fiscal discipline and debt servicing. If India helps ensure repayment and enforces reform” continuity, sovereignty questions may be side-lined — unless public unrest or non-transparency begins to risk broader instability.
How China and Its Allies Will View the Scenario
Beijing will see India’s takeover as a temporary setback to its Belt & Road objectives in Sri Lanka. Hambantota, Port City, and broader Indian Ocean ambitions are being encircled by India’s expanding influence.
Yet, China plays the long game. Rather than confrontation, it will:
Cultivate economic alliances with disaffected business sectors.
Build goodwill through non-interference and cultural diplomacy.
Wait for Indian overreach to provoke a popular backlash.
China’s allies (including BRICS and SCO) may also see India’s dominance in Sri Lanka as overreach — possibly sparking renewed interest in counterbalancing initiatives across the Indian Ocean Region.
India’s post-2024 engagements with Sri Lanka offer infrastructure and aid — but at the cost of strategic independence.
Without public resistance and urgent course correction, Sri Lanka may lose sovereign control over its:
National defence architecture
Digital identity and data
Strategic energy and port assets
Foreign policy autonomy
National unity and territorial cohesion
This is not colonization by force — but colonization by agreement. It is sovereignty surrendered — not stolen.
Sri Lanka must act now — before pen and ink erase 75 years of independence.
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 29 June – 05 July 2025
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‘Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody has lashed out
at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
Asian Development Bank (ADB), & the World Bank
over their public criticism of amendments to the Electricity Act,
accusing them of bypassing diplomatic channels & politicising
the issue. ‘This is not how it should be done. They can’t work with us
like this,’ Minister Jayakody said in a tv interview on Thursday,
‘They should have handled it more diplomatically instead of going public.’
– see ee Industry, Energy Minister lashes out at international funding agencies
It is no surprise to discover the USA’s bankers & their Japanese bunraku (puppets) – the whites & the honorary whites (yes, the US Envoy too!) – striding about the country, spreading legs & wiping mouths across the media, cozily contravening any Vienna diplomatic conventions. Colombo has long been an occupied colonial enclave – and it is no surprise to find India’s merchants & their military moving in creepy lockstep to replace the old imperialist powers, this time as the USA’s front paws & claws. Shenali Waduge tells us Sri Lanka’s ‘commercial capital & nerve centre’ – Western Province – is today the ‘epicenter of India’s strategic control & influence. The prolific & indefatigable Waduge has begun a series (by province) to unravel this steady Indian infiltration, which she dedicates to ‘SL’s foreign ministry, national defense thinktanks & those tasked to secure Sri Lanka’s sovereignty’ (see ee Focus).
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This week saw the passing of naval historian Somasiri Devendra. An ee maritime correspondent once asked Devendra about the 19th century English sabotage of Sinhala shipbuilding, and shipping, via insurance restrictions, etc, because the English ships could not compete with the Sinhala designs, etc. Devendra responded, ‘Not only Sinhala, but Tamil & Muslim shipbuilding & shipping too.’
Yet, the English had to permit their settler colonies to build their own ships. We wonder what the dearly departed Devendra would have thought about the 51% stake in state-owned Colombo Dockyard, first sold off to Japan’s Onomichi, which now seems to have been allowed to sell it off to India’s Defense Ministry–owned Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders. Japan took over and ruined Colombo Dockyard because it was a threat to Japan, just as they saw the building of a state-owned cement plant in Kakesanthurai as a threat to cement traders from both India & Japan (Tokyo Cement, Insee, etc).
The secretive decision to facilitate the divestment of Colombo Dockyard to an Indian company was taken during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka in April 2025. Even then concerns were raised over national security, economic sovereignty & transparency in the deal-making process. Sri Lanka possesses a wealth of local expertise in shipbuilding & maintenance, making foreign intervention unnecessary. Did Onomichi only promote the more toxic parts of production (fibre-glass use etc) to Sri Lankans? Did they ever reinvest their profits or share expertise in the making of engines, etc? We doubt it. Which is why we snicker when we hear about Japan’s yen largesse along with amplified sermons on petty retail corruption in Sri Lanka (see ee Random Notes).
This week saw a slew of largely unnamed Indian merchants & officials including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) enter Colombo. The CII’s 15 members were led by England’s Imperial Tobacco Co of India (ITC) Chairman & CII Immediate Past President Sanjiv Puri. ITC is linked to the Ceylon Tobacco Co (CTC), which is owned by British American Tobacco (BAT) – about both whom ee began a series from 22 February. The CTC also plays a major role in both exacerbating our health budget but also the economy – it claims to be ‘the most valuable company in Sri Lanka’. CTC Chairman Suresh Shah was put in charge of ‘SOERU – the State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit’ – to sell off our national assets, and he appears to have disappeared into strategic camouflage…
BAT-ITC-CTC’s forward role is curious as it has been a commonplace for India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, the English-owned Hindustan Lever, to send down their trainees to head Unilever SL, as their corporate satrapy. Unilever is of course the illegitimate child of the East India Company, just like the Anglo American plc, which controls South Africa…
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India (& its south in particular) has indeed deeply sought to play an outsized role in Sri Lanka’s political & economic life – before, during & after European invasions (which US patronage now wishes to continue forever, despite claims otherwise). The roads & rails inside & in between such slavish institutions as port, fort, prison & plantation were first built by England’s terroristic Pioneer Corps composed of mercenary Indians, Malays & Africans, then by unfree Sinhala labor (road taxes) & then indentured enslaved Indians. More recently, attempting partition, they trained terrorist gangs and suicide squads, recruited mainly from the North, Central Highlands & East, to facilitate the invasion of 70,000 Indian troops in 1987, which saw a united struggle, south & north, with great sacrifice, to drive them out.
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‘There had never existed before a ‘government by which so
much is written & so little done, as the Government of India’.
When the East India Company was only a commercial association,
a most detailed report on every item had to be sent from the managers
of their Indian factories, like any trading concern. When the factories
grew into an Empire, the commercial items into ‘ship loads of
correspondence & documents’, the Leadenhall clerks went on in
their system, ‘making the Directors & the Board their dependents.’
They succeeded in ‘transforming the Indian Government into
one immense writing-machine.’ In one single dispatch
45,000 pages of collection were sent!
– Karl Marx, New York Tribune, 1853
India was England’s largest state (slaughtering & dividing & ruling) machinery, dispatched to invade China & Africa, etc. And India, having supposedly ‘saved’ Sri Lanka by lending us more rupees, is now calling in its debts. They, too, are also giving us sermons about fiscal fidelity & human rights along with England & Japan & Germany etc. So, we found it downright curious to finally hear the Energy Minister ‘lash out’.
We have heard no responses from these institutions seeking to make us even more energy-dependent with their patented solar & wind technologies. They normally saturate the media with their mundane press releases. Meanwhile, bankers are raking in dollar profits through remittances and the exports of mainly raw materials, while foreclosing on their debtors. What criteria these bankers use to lend money in the first place, to invest in what modern production, we are not told. But the WorldBank-financed ‘private’ Commercial Bank says it is thrilled to help Toyota export its ‘pre-loved’ vehicles to Sri Lanka. No wonder the IMF has been demanding vehicle imports!
Despite such high-level malfeasance, the media is having a field day – outragificiation personified – calling for ‘setting politicians to catch politicians’.Yet, such ‘corruption’ (including the high & low commissioners, really!) is very much part of the merchant & usurer capitalism that dominates such economies as ours. Yet no media owners, and the multinational corporations & bankers who own these owners, or the accountants who magically cover it all up, have been and will be arrested and paraded – perpwalked in handcuffs, like they do rural politicians wearing ‘national’, who tried to make a quick buck but don’t have the E&Y and KPMG accountants to magically make it disappear in Delaware, USA, or the Isle of Man, England.
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Some of the last conversations SBD de Silva had with his friends & enemies, centred on the nature of Sri Lanka’s famed large irrigation systems, and how the ancient village councils (purana gamsabha) strictly maintained them, becoming the basis of solidarity among people. Interestingly, this was also what occupied Karl Marx in his last years, especially from evidence freshly gathered from Sri Lanka (see ee 11 July 2020, Cool Marx on SL).
This ee also continues looking at the largely unsung role played SBD de Silva in unearthing the roots of our discontent, by searching the world over for vital clues. ee has dutifully dedicated this blog to SBD, throughout these 7 years after his passing in June 2018. This ee therefore offers Shiran Illanperuma’s examination about why de Silva has been largely ignored by so-called Marxist movements & intellectuals. He suggests it has to do with SBD going against ‘the leading theoretical trends among Third World radicals of the time’. We should add, these ‘radicals’, by no means insistently pro-USSR or pro-Communist Party of China, were largely promoted by white academe & such institutions as the UN, NGOs, etc. Illanperuma interestingly explores de Silva’s London School of Economics (LSE) PhD thesis, which SBD himself soon rejected. SB’s book took on the Caribbean’s Nobel Prize-winning Arthur Lewis, who was even knighted by the English monarchy. Illanperuma also notes SBD took a relatively unpopular side in more famous inter-Marxist debates of that era. For SB it was more a question of where we are going, than where we are coming from. By the way, England’s universities like LSE hoard & prevent easy access to these knowledge productions by Sri Lankan & other students, and instead use them against us. Also, Illanperuma refers to an interview given by de Silva. SBD never gave ‘interviews’, so it’s surprising (then again, not) that the (hijacked) Social Scientists Association (SSA) of all places, claims he did (ee has excised the misleading reference in honor of SB’s memory!).
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George V wished that the Secretary of State for the Colonies
would do something to ‘stop these horrible exhibitions…’
This ee Focus continues Chapter 6 of SBD de Silva’s classic, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, which examines the great lengths the imperialists went to, to prevent us from finding out about each other across the divides of continents. It tells of the restrictions on Indian crews on vessels trading with England, who supposedly reported back on the scenes in England which divested them ‘of the respect which they had entertained in India for the European character’. It examines the various devices whereby white supremacy was maintained, noting that many prejudices arose due to ‘the jealousy of the European women’ who had to endure the double-standards white men upheld to enable liaisons with Black women. SBD also added, how ‘the ‘greater threat… came much later from cinema: In Africa, films viewed by the Africans were censored to exclude scenes suggestive of disreputable behaviour by Europeans.’
‘The racial privileges of the settlers were most helpful
to the small farmers, artisans & traders… The extensive
repression of the indigenous inhabitants in the settler colonies
was also due to the widespread economic involvement of the
settlers & to their monopoly of political power…
Political rather than economic forces were…
allowed to determine the structure of production.’
SBD detailed how the settlers developed a sense of local identity in such colonies, unlike the non-settler expatriates in Sri Lanka. He examined the role played by white supremacism especially in the settler-colonies, which are like a halfway house, between the genocidal white dominions (US, Canada etc) & non-settler colonies such as Sri Lanka.
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• The media keeps blaming corruption on politicians, with their whitewashed news awash with lectures by Indian & Japanese & German envoys & commentators about our primordial corruption. They should know! A simple perusal of ee’s mind-numbing News Index (see below) would expose the sheer blatant repetition (photocopies, copy -&-paste jobs, really) of corporate & state & NGO news releases. The main culprits are the corporates, who seem to spend their time, giving each other awards and claiming them as tax-breaks, as well as the IMF, the WB, the Indian, Japanese, English, German & US embassies. The Germans only recently (2010?) banned the bribing of officials, while the US just OKed such bribery again, even as they are giving ‘free media’, ‘investigative’ awards to their favored hack scribes in their favored hack rags.
Yet, politicians are just the temporary actors in this game, while there is a permanent, invisible government, which some conspiratorially call the ‘Deep State’, without ever acknowledging such capitalist subterfuge has always been the realm & power of the state as state. This permanent government or senior bureaucracy is ruled by bankers & their corporations, and this role & power is hidden by the media, the chief proponents of this ‘deep state’ business. Which is why it was therefore a surprise to hear our Energy Minister supposedly ‘lash out’ at the WB, ADB etc… Meanwhile, the IMF & World Bank are parading a slew of their favoured coolios & kneegrows (Singhs & Gopinaths & Woldemichaels) to basically repeat the same mumbling their white handlers mouth. They could all be replaced soon by US Treasury or US Federal Reserve AI drones which travel the globe, alternately bombing babies & weeping about the corruptions of barbarians…
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• In honor of the current wrangling for municipal office, with the ruling party ‘inextricably grounded between a Black Economy & a Debt Economy’ (so says CPSL President DEW Gunasekera on the Communist Party at 82, see ee Random Notes), ee Focus continues Gustavus Myers’ 1917 History of Tammany Hall about the New York ‘charity’ Tammany Society. A secret political machine, it sought to harness ‘the dangerous strength of the worst classes of the city’, to get ‘the foreign born, the native rowdies & the usual mass blinded into voting for their candidates’. He described the role played in the mid-19thC by ‘gamblers, brothel-keepers, immigrant runners [‘traffickers’?] & swindlers’ in the ‘manufacture’ of ‘1,000s of voters’. This episode describes a municipal election – ‘the first in which the Democratic voters of Irish nativity or lineage insisted on a full share of the best places on the party’s ticket. Previously they had seldom been allowed any local office above Coroner’. The Irish Catholics appear to have now attained an uneasy acceptance in US politics, and who knows, may even colonize England again!
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• Humanities, Anyone? Imperialism now seems to feel secure or deluded enough to have its lesser genders & shades & ‘artists’ front its inner gateways & genocidal machineries. Blaise Metreweli, the next head of England’s MI6, the first female spy chief in that agency’s 116-year history, who from September will take charge of all of England’s grimy, filthy, bloody secrets (they just bombed a Russian oil tanker this week, & blamed it on the Ukrainians), read anthropology at Cambridge’s Pembroke College. But not to worry. Her anthropology may not extend to excavating the angry ghosts surrounding her grandfather Constantine Dobrowolski, ‘a Ukrainian dubbed ‘The Butcher’ who became their World War 2 Nazi’s chief informant in Ukraine’s Chernihiv Oblast’. She resembles a blue-eyed dwarf killer doll from Hollywood’s Barbarella flick.
Meanwhile, the USA’s latest Deputy Chief of Mission in Colombo, Jayne Howell, originally from South Carolina’s Charleston (the major North America receiving port for kidnapped Africans), holds a BA in Archeological Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Dig that: an expert on bones, dipped in petroleum no doubt!
The World Bank’s latest Vice President for the South Asia Region, Dutch national Johannes Zutt has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Oxford! We all should know by now what Oxonian Philosophy amounts to…
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• Meanwhile, since ee noted on 15 March, ‘IMF Managing Directors are All White’, the USA has started sending us their token brown memsahibs & sahibs. One occasion was the commemoration of the ‘75th anniversary of the IMF’s engagement with Sri Lanka – a relationship that began with the founding of the Central Bank SL’: we got Gita Gopinath, IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director and Krishna Srinivasan, Director of the Asia & Pacific Department (IMF) attending the CBSL’s Sri Lanka’s Road to Recovery: Debt & Governance conference in Colombo. We had the pleasure of having the World Bank’s Punjabi Sikh President Ajay Banga visit Sri Lanka even earlier. But what does it matter? Their tanned lips all splutter the same white schlock about sticking to the IMF’s shaky guardrails and dutifully swallowing their prescriptions. So it doesn’t matter what color or shade or headwear they don, they might as well be US Treasury robots spouting the same tired algorithms. Their mathematics is the same: After all these centuries of imperial looting, they calculate we somehowowe them!
Gopinath was sent all this way to warn us, ‘the shock from Trump’s trade war is worse than Covid-19’. Really? Gopinath told the English-Japanese Financial Times: ‘Monetary authorities are steering through the fog without coordination or a shared crisis playbook’. And the head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) concluded at the OECD annual meeting, about international cooperation – ‘We’re really where we were before the meeting, which is nowhere.’ Meanwhile, ‘Poverty rates (even those unrealistically set by the World Bank) are rising…’ So, all their forecasts somehow have not taken into account their big bosses’ propensities to wage wars, hot & cold – instead, they refer to ‘global turbulence’ etc. So…, fasten your Toyota & Ford seatbelts, everyone! All that the USA wishes to ensure is that we don’t industrially link with China (see ee Quotes, Vietnam). Beyond that, they have absolutely no constructive plan for us. Meanwhile, our leaders still keep insisting we must follow the white man over the edge….
Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha (Retd) made a field visit yesterday (Jul 05) to the Doppler Weather Radar Network project site in Puttalam. The project, supported through a generous grant aid from the Government of Japan, is aimed at enhancing real-time weather forecasting and early warning systems across the island.
Upon arrival, the Defence Secretary was warmly welcomed by Mr. Athula Karunanayake, Director General of the Department of Meteorology. The visit underscored the strategic collaboration between the Ministry of Defence and the Meteorology Department in developing resilient infrastructure against natural disasters.
The Doppler Radar Network, once operational, is expected to greatly improve the accuracy of weather predictions and provide timely alerts to safeguard lives and property from extreme weather events.
The Defence Secretary praised the initiative, noting its alignment with national efforts to modernize disaster management systems and strengthen bilateral ties with Japan.
The event witnessed the presence of Additional Secretary to the Disaster Management Division of the Ministry of Defence, K.G. Karunathiake, senior officials from the Meteorology Department and Ministry of Defence, as well as international collaborators including Hazama Ando Corporation, Project Manager Tanaka Shumei and a team of technical experts from Japan Radio Co. (JRC). Their participation highlighted the importance of global cooperation in transferring critical technology and expertise to Sri Lanka.
This landmark project not only advances meteorological science in Sri Lanka but also represents a powerful step toward climate resilience and international solidarity.
