பக்ச பாசிசம் ``புதிய` மைத்திரி பாசிசத்தின் அங்கமே!

MR, CBK in SLFP top team to prepare for polls



The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday appointed a top level committee to advise the party and spearhead the parliamentary election campaign.

The appointments were made during the party’s executive committee meeting.

The committee headed by President Maithripala Sirisena will include former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, former  Prime ministers D.M. Jayaratna and Ratnasiri Wickremanayke, Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, former Minister Vishwa Warnapala and former Governor Alavi Moulana.

Both, Mr. Rajapaksa and Ms. Kumaratunga were not present when the appointments were made. They had excused themselves from the meeting.

Former Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa was named the General Secretary of the SLFP.   Former Minister John Seneviratne was named as the Senior Vice President. Ten other Vice Presidents were also named.

The party also appointed former Minister Susil Premajayantha as the National Organiser, replacing Basil Rajapaksa, while former senior minister S.B. Nawinna was appointed as Treasurer. 

Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was a vice president, was appointed only as a Central Committee member.

மைத்திரி ஆட்சியில் இந்திய விரிவாதிக்க அரசுக்கு இலங்கையில் பொருளாதார மேலாதிக்கம்.

Hopes for strong economic ties with India


President Maithriapala Sirisena will leave for India today on a four-day visit leading a 16-member delegation in his first overseas visit after last month’s presidential election. Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka and Resettlement Minister D.M.

Swaminathan will accompany the President while Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera who is in the US will join the President in India.

President Sirisena will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow. He will also meet other political leaders.

The president is also scheduled to visit Buddha Gaya and the Tirupathi temple before he returns on Wednesday. Meanwhile, economists said the warming of relations between India and Sri Lanka with the advent of new leaders in the two countries after a prolonged period of suspicion and distrust, was the ideal platform to revisit stalled negotiations on a proposed economic and trade services agreement.

The visit for talks with Prime Minister Modi on key issues including the peace and reconciliation process in Sri Lanka, should also set the tone for fresh  talks on trade and economic cooperation, they said. “(Prime Minister) Modi has an open mind and is very accommodating. This is the time to restart negotiations on the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and also revisit the ongoing FREE TRADE Agreement (FTA),” a senior economist said.

He said the FTA had come to a stage of stagnation and like all trade pacts needed to be fine-tuned to keep in line with modern trends and global changes in trade and commerce.

R.D.S. Kumararatne, Director General of Commerce, said Sri Lanka, at the moment, would focus on the FTA as the CEPA had been stalled for some time.

Negotiations leading to a proposed agreement on the CEPA started during Ranil Wickremasinghe’s previous term as Prime Minister (2002-2004), which the economist said would be a positive factor in restarting talks on the proposed deal.

CEPA talks crashed during former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s 2004-2014 tenure owing to protests by local industrialists and other parties. They claimed the pact would open the doors for Indian professionals and semi-professionals to work in assigned sectors in Sri Lanka, thereby depriving locals of jobs.

These concerns were countered by trade experts and economists working on the Sri Lankan side saying such concerns would be addressed. However, the anti-CEPA lobby was so strong that it led to the former President putting the negotiations on the back burner.

Economists say the FTA also needs review and in both cases, FTA and CEPA, domestic concerns — restricting trade, investment and services in areas where Sri Lankans are building a  base –  could be addressed by the negative list. They said that uncertainty as to whether such concerns would be addressed in the negative list had deepened ANXIETY by local industrialists over the proposed pact.

“But all these concerns can be addressed now,” noted the senior economist, stressing that “India (under) Modi is very generous and reaching out to its neighbours unlike before”.

இந்திய விரிவாதிக்க அங்கீகாரப் பாதையே, மைத்திரி கும்பலின் பிராந்திய வெளிவிவகாரப்பாதை!

Sirisena-Modi Talks: Lankans Urge Cautious Approach to Ties With India

By P.K.Balachandran Published: 15th February 2015 04:32 PM Last UPDATED: 15th February 2015 04:32 PM

COLOMBO: As Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena prepares to have talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday,

Opinion makers in Lanka have urged him to be cautious in his bid to improve ties with India, even as they endorsed his policy of recognizing India’s pre-eminent position in the South Asian region.

“President Sirisena’s visit must essentially be a goodwill visit. It must be devoid of joint statements which the Indian MEA will draft. They see things with their heads, not their hearts. It is too early for the Sri Lankan government to get into the crux of substantive bilateral issues on such a visit. This can be left to a subsequent visit by the Prime Minister or during a reciprocal visit by the Indian PM to Colombo,” said Sunday Times.

Pointing out that the Indian side will raise the issue of fully implementing the 13 th.Amendment (devolving power to the provinces), the paper said that India should not be allowed to treat the Tamil areas of the North as an Indian “enclave” or “colony”.

Saying that the MEA is “led by southern Indians” the paper urged the Lankan mission in New Delhi to go above them and cultivate the Central political leaders to stop Tamil Nadu trawlers from massively poaching in North Lankan waters.

The paper charged that Indian taxes block the entry of Lankan goods into the Indian market, despite the existence of a FREE TRADE Agreement. It also pointed out that while India had stated its agenda for the talks, Lanka had not.

Sunday Leader urged India not to push for further devolution of power to the Tamils as that might “create a conflagration”. Ceylon Today appealed to Delhi not to do anything that might upset Sirisena’s plans to usher in a new order in Lanka.

The Tamils have urged Sirisena to firmly reject the Indian proposal to repatriate 100,000 Lankan refugees from Tamil Nadu.“There should be no repatriation till all the lands appropriated by the Lankan armed forces are returned to the people,” said Suresh Premachandran, spokesman of Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Mangala’s U.S. talks “successful”

Mangala’s U.S. talks “successful”

By admin
February 15, 2015 11:04

The Government says the just concluded visit to the United States by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, was successful.

Samaraweera was in the US to brief US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon on the efforts being taken by the new Government to address human rights concerns.

The Minister also sought to mend ties with the US, which had been strained after the former Government refused to work with the US on the human rights issue.

The External Affairs Ministry said that the visit by Samaraweera, which was his first to the US capital since assuming office as the Minister of Foreign Affairs followed the visit of US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal to Colombo earlier this month and coincided with the completion of 30 days in office of the new Government in Sri Lanka.

During the two day visit, the Minister held a range of meetings including with Secretary of State John Kerry, National SECURITY Adviser Susan Rice, co-chairs of the Sri Lanka Caucus in the US Congress, Chris Van Hollen and Robert Aderholt, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Ed Royce and Ranking Member of the Committee, Congressman Eliot Engel.

Inviting Secretary Kerry to visit Sri Lanka at an appropriate time, Minister Samaraweera stressed that he looks forward to working closely with the Secretary of State and other important partners in the United States to enhance relations between the two countries to a state of excellence.

Addressing a full house at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think-tank in the US, after warm welcome remarks by its newly appointed President, the former US Deputy Secretary of State Ambassador William J. Burns, the Minister spoke at length on the post-Presidential election developments in the country including steps being taken for reconciliation, strengthening democracy and good governance and also set out foreign policy objectives of the Government.

Speaking on Sri Lanka-US Relations at the National Press Club, the Minister observed that SHARED values and commitment to democratic ideals gives much scope for the two countries to work together and that the Sri Lanka – US partnership must take into account the island’s strategic geographic location.
(Colombo Gazette)