U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release January 25, 2015

U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region

As the leaders of the world’s two largest democracies that bridge the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region and reflecting our agreement that a closer partnership between the United States and India is indispensable to promoting peace, prosperity and stability in those regions, we have agreed on a Joint Strategic Vision for the region. 

India and the United States are important drivers of regional and global growth.  From Africa to East Asia, we will build on our partnership to support sustainable, inclusive development, and increased regional connectivity by collaborating with other interested partners to address poverty and support broad-based prosperity.

To support regional economic integration, we will promote accelerated infrastructure connectivity and economic development in a manner that links South, Southeast and Central Asia, including by enhancing energy transmission and encouraging free trade and greater people-to-people linkages.

Regional prosperity depends on security. We affirm the importance of safeguarding maritime security and ensuring freedom of navigation and over flight throughout the region, especially in the South China Sea. 

We call on all parties to avoid the threat or use of force and pursue resolution of territorial and maritime disputes through all peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

We will oppose terrorism, piracy, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction within or from the region.

We will also work together to promote the shared values that have made our countries great, recognizing that our interests in peace, prosperity and stability are well served by our common commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

We commit to strengthening the East Asia Summit on its tenth anniversary to promote regional dialogue on key political and security issues, and to work together to strengthen it.

In order to achieve this regional vision, we will develop a roadmap that leverages our respective efforts to increase ties among Asian powers, enabling both our nations to better respond to diplomatic, economic and security challenges in the region.

As part of these efforts, the United States welcomes India's interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as the Indian economy is a dynamic part of the Asian economy. 

Over the next five years, we will strengthen our regional dialogues, invest in making trilateral consultations with third countries in the region more robust, deepen regional integration, strengthen regional forums, explore additional multilateral opportunities for engagement, and pursue areas where we can build capacity in the region that bolster long-term peace and prosperity for all. 

Source:the White House
Link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/25/us-india-joint-strategic-vision-asia-pacific-and-indian-ocean-region

Marks and Spencer is looking at investing in Sri Lankan apparel sector

Marks and Spencer is looking at investing in Sri Lankan apparel sector
Business

The Chief Executive Officer of Marks and Spencer Company, Marc Bolland met the Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunanayake and had discussions.

Minister Karunanayake was in London to attend the Sri Lankan Investor Forum, organized by Colombo Stock Exchange, Sri Lankan Embassy in London and Bloomberg.

During his visit, Minister Karunanayake had talks with Bolland who has said they are looking at a big investment in Sri Lanka.

The British multinational retailer CEO also requested Minister Karunanayake to widen the scope of investment opportunities in Sri Lanka.

The Chief Executive Officer of Marks and Spencer Company, Marc Bolland with Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunanayake
He said Sri Lankan employees in the garment industry had shown exquisite performance and skills when compared to their counterpart in other countries. Bolland added that Marks and Spencer was prepared to give priority to Sri Lanka when investing in the garment industry and several other fields.

Founded in M&S is one of the UK’s leading retailers, with over 1,330 stores worldwide. It markets high quality, great value products to 33 million customers through their 852 UK stores and their e-commerce platform.

It has two divisions: Food which accounts for 57% of our turnover, and General Merchandise, which accounts for the remaining 43%. M&S have market leading positions in Womenswear, Lingerie and Menswear. M&S has 480 wholly-owned, jointly-owned or franchised stores in 59 territories across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

British Forces Rush to Help Afghans Hold Off Taliban in Helmand

ASIA PACIFIC

Afganistaan Forces in Helmand

British Forces Rush to Help Afghans Hold Off Taliban in Helmand
By MUJIB MASHAL and TAIMOOR SHAHDEC. 22, 2015


KABUL, Afghanistan — Besieged Afghan forces were struggling to head off a complete Taliban takeover of the critical southern district of Sangin on Tuesday, and a new deployment of British troops was rushed in to help direct an increasingly pressed battle across the surrounding province of Helmand.

A small contingent of British forces in an advisory role arrived at Camp Shorabak, the largest British military base in Afghanistan before it was handed over to the Afghan forces last year, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“They are not deployed in a combat role and will not deploy outside the camp,” the statement said.

The new deployment, which Afghan officials said included about 40 people, was in addition to an influx of American Special Operations forces that deployed to Helmand when the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, was on the verge of falling several weeks ago.

Ebadullah Alizai, a member of the provincial council in Helmand, said much of the Sangin district center was under Taliban control, with an Afghan Army unit surrounded and in urgent need of reinforcements.

But attempts to get the extra troops to Sangin were being slowed by roadside bombs, he said.

Sangin has been one of the deadliest Afghan battlegrounds for British and American troops throughout the war. Within months of the NATO transfer of security control to Afghan forces there, the district began coming under heavy insurgent pressure.

The Afghan forces have been mostly penned into their bases there over the past year. But in recent weeks, the situation became even worse, as police forces began taking witheringly heavy casualties, Afghan officials said. By Tuesday, the remaining police contingent and members of the civilian government had retreated from the district center and were surrounded at an army base about two miles away, said Abdul Bashir Shakir, head of the security committee at the provincial council.

“The reinforcements have been sent, but heavy I.E.D.s about four kilometers from the district center stopped their approach,” Mr. Shakir said.

Still, officials said there were no coalition forces in Sangin itself, as they were focused on assisting the broader fight across Helmand Province.

The Taliban has made huge strides in its Helmand offensive this year. For months, Afghan forces have been struggling to repel Taliban advances across several districts, including Khan Neshin, Gereshk, Marja, Kajaki and Washir. The insurgents have made it as close as three miles from Lashkar Gah, in the suburb of Babaji, where fighting has gone on for weeks.

“We have severe challenges in 13 districts, only Garmsir and Nawa districts are calm at the moment,” Mr. Alizai said.

The largest province in Afghanistan in terms of territory, Helmand holds great symbolic value both to the Taliban and the Afghan government and its Western backers.

It was at the heart of President Obama’s troop surge after he took office, where fresh American forces and resources were rushed in to try to break the Taliban’s hold. British troops also fought bloody battles there, suffering some of their worst casualties.

For the Taliban, Helmand is a crucial prize because of its resources. The province produces the biggest opium poppy harvest in Afghanistan, and its deserts fall right on the lucrative trafficking route that the Taliban have increasingly exploited. One of Afghanistan’s biggest marble mines is also in Helmand, with the Taliban profiting from the royalties.

The province shares a long and fluid border with Pakistan, where most of the Taliban’s senior leadership lives. Some Afghan officials believe the insurgents have pushed harder for Helmand this year specifically to create a haven and operational headquarters in Afghanistan, allowing their leaders to come back into the country.

Much of the Helmand offensive has been waged by fighters loyal to Mullah Qayum Zakir, a former Guantánamo Bay inmate who is considered one of the architects of the Taliban resurgence and is a leading rival to the new Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour.

Even as the Taliban’s southern offensive has gained ground, so have their military pushes in eastern Afghanistan, and in the north as well, where they briefly occupied the provincial capital of Kunduz in September.

The broad pattern of fighting has desperately stretched the Afghan forces in a year when NATO air support was wound down with the end of the formal combat mission in 2014, Afghan officials say.

Ahmad Shakib contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on December 23, 2015, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: British Forces Rush to Help Afghans Repel Taliban in Helmand. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

ரணிலுக்கும் சந்திரிக்காவிற்கும் இடையில் லண்டனில் சந்திப்பு

ரணிலுக்கும் சந்திரிக்காவிற்கும் இடையில் லண்டனில் சந்திப்பு
வெள்ளிக்கிழமை, 25 டிசெம்பர் 2015,

பிரதமர் ரணில் விக்ரமசிங்கவுக்கும் முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி சந்திரிக்கா பண்டாரநாயக்கவுக்கும் இடையில் லண்டனில் சந்திப்பு நடத்தப்பட உள்ளதாகத் தெரிவிக்கப்படுகிறது.

தனிப்பட்ட விஜயமொன்றை மேற்கொண்டு கடந்த 22ம் திகதி பிரதமர் ரணில் விக்ரமசிங்க லண்டன் சென்றிருந்தார்.

அதேபோன்று தனிப்பட்ட விஜயமொன்றை மேற்கொண்டு கடந்த 18ம் திகதி முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி சந்திரிக்கா பண்டாரநாயக்க குமாரதுங்க லண்டன் சென்றிருந்தார்.

ஆக இந்த இரு ``தனிப்பட்ட விஜயங்களிலும்`` பின்வரும் தேசியப்  பிரச்சனைகள் விவாதத்துக்கு எடுக்கப்படுமெனவும் அதே ஊடகங்கள் தெரிவித்துள்ளன!

1) தற்போதைய அரசாங்கத்தின் நடவடிக்கைகள், 

2) உத்தேச அரசியல் அமைப்பு திருத்தங்கள், 

3) கடந்த மஹிந்த ஆட்சிக் கால ஊழல் மோசடிகள் குறித்த விசாரணைகளின் நிலைமை, 

4) எதிர்வரும் நாட்களில் மேற்கொள்ளப்படவுள்ள அமைச்சரவை மாற்றங்கள் 5) உள்ளிட்ட பல்வேறு விடயங்கள் குறித்து இந்த பேச்சுவார்த்தையில் கவனம் செலுத்தப்பட உள்ளதாக ஊடகச் செய்திகள் கூறுகின்றன!

PFLP Condemns the assasination of Smir Kuntar

PFLP condemns the assassination of the martyr

Samir Kuntar, Arab resistance leader and liberated prisoner

Dec 20 2015

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemned the assassination of the martyr Samir Kuntar, who was dedicated to the resistance and liberation of Palestine from a young age, and continued to struggle after his freedom from captivity in occupation prisons, for the liberation of the Golan Heights and Palestine.

The Popular Front urged all forces of Arab resistance to unite to confront the Zionist fascist forces that feed on internal division and conflict, and promote destructie schemes against the Arab people.

“This treacherous crime that targeted the struggler, liberated prisoner Samir Kuntar, confirms the extent of the Zionist enemy’s hatred for the role of the great martyr Kuntar,” said Comrade Maher al-Taher, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, denouncing the “act of Zionist terrorism that targeted the leader Samir Kuntar on the land of Syria.”

“Throughout four decades of his life, Samir Kuntar was a guerilla, a prisoner, a steadfast leader and a spearhead of the resistance,” said the Prisoners’ Commission of the PFLP, in a statement on the assassination of Kuntar.

“As we mourn the martyr of the Arab nation and the resistance, we are proud to affirm that the leadership and struggle of Samir Kuntar, who gave so much in steadfastness and in his blood, will remain a beacon for all who fight for liberation in the world, and will remain a symbol of struggle and resistance for generations to come,” said the Commmission.

Further, the Commission said, “we warn of the consequences of continuing to target liberated prisoners, which indicates the hatred of the Zionist war machine for them. This treacherous crime must be confronted and liberated prisoners must be protected from the attacks of the Zionist enemy. The blood of the leader Samir Kuntar will not create anything but more determination to continue on the same path of resistance, of Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab resistance and liberation in the Golan, of the occupied Arab lands in Bekaa, and all of Palestine.”

PFLP Com Barakat: On US,Israel,Saudi trangle against Palestine

PFLP Comrade Barakat

Barakat: The U.S., the Zionist state and Saudi Arabia are the triangle of sabotage and terror in the region
Dec 16 2015 berlin4

“The Palestinian people have been struggling for decades against imperialist, Zionist and reactionary terror in Palestine, and have paid a dear price in this struggle as a victim of colonial occupation,” said Comrade Khaled Barakat, responding to media reports of the decision of the Palestinian Authority to participate in the so-called “Islamic Coalition Against Terror” led by Saudi Arabia.

“This is an absurd decision that represents only those who have taken it and does not represent the Palestinian people. The Palestinian Authority is standing in one valley and the Palestinian people are standing in quite another,” Barakat said. “Terror in our region has been imposed by the criminal actions of the enemy camp with all of its arms: imperialism, Zionism and reactionary regimes. This is the lived experience of our nation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf,” said Barakat.

The masses of the Palestinian people are aware of the U.S., Zionist and Saudi role in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and the region as a whole, and that these parties have no legitimacy to talk about “opposing terror” while imposing terror upon the Palestinian and Arab people, Barakat said.

Over a million migrants and refugees have reached Europe this year, says IOM

Over a million migrants and refugees have reached Europe this year, says IOM
International Organisation for Migration announces latest figures, with Greek island of Lesbos now the main refugee gateway
Tuesday 22 December 2015 12.43 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 23 December 2015 00.50

Syrian refugee throws wife and baby on to train tracks in protest to migrant camps in Hungery

More than a million people have now reached Europe through irregular means in 2015, the International Organisation for Migration has announced, in what constitutes the continent’s biggest wave of mass migration since the aftermath of the second world war.

Out of a total of 1,005,504 arrivals by 21 December, the vast majority – 816,752 – arrived by sea in Greece, the IOM said. A further 150,317 arrived by sea in Italy, with much smaller figures for Spain, Malta and Cyprus. A total of 34,215 crossed by land routes, such as over the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

The overall figure is a four-fold increase from 2014’s figures, and has largely been driven by Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war. Afghans, Iraqis and Eritreans fleeing conflict and repression are the other significant national groups.

The European migration flow is nevertheless far more manageable than in the Middle East, where roughly 2.2 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey alone. In Lebanon, 1.1 million Syrians form about one-fifth of the country’s total population, while Jordan’s 633,000 registered Syrian refugees make up around a tenth of the total.

The denial of basic rights to refugees in those countries, where almost all Syrians do not have the right to work, is one of the causes of Europe’s migration crisis. Refugees who have lived for several years in legal limbo are now coming to Europe to claim the rights bestowed on them by the 1951 UN refugee convention.

Other refugees are fleeing directly from the war zones themselves. Aruba al-Rifai, a 44-year-old civil servant from the outskirts of Damascus, arrived on Lesbos this week having come straight from Syria. “The bombs are getting worse, and it’s just the beginning,” said Rifai. “I come to Europe to feel like a human being.”

Among rights workers, Tuesday’s news prompted renewed calls for Europe to set up safe and legal access to refugees. Save the Children, which says that over a quarter of refugee arrivals to Europe this year have been minors, said the absence of a more humanitarian response meant that the values of the continent were now at risk.

“Despite many European countries and people generously helping one million refugees, Europe is doing too little to protect and help vulnerable refugee children and stop families drowning on our shores,” said Kirsty McNeill, the charity’s campaigns director.

“This is the test of our European ideal. When children are dying on our doorstep we need to take bolder action. There can be no bigger priority.”

Among other demands, McNeill also called for better provision for refugees once they arrive in Europe. “Some reception facilities, especially at borders, aren’t adequately providing for basic needs like food, water or healthcare,” McNeill said in a statement. “The situation is expected to worsen with the onset of winter – especially for children -who are also more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, violence and trafficking. We urge European states to focus on immediate humanitarian needs on the ground, especially for children.”

The record movement of people into Europe is a symptom of a record level of disruption around the globe, with numbers of refugees and internally displaced people far surpassing 60 million, UNHCR said last week.

“I don’t understand why people are insisting that this is a European problem. This is a global issue,” Michael Moller, director of the UN office in Geneva, told a news conference on Tuesday.

The UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres called on Friday for a “massive resettlement” of Syrian and other refugees within Europe, to distribute many hundreds of thousands of people before the continent’s asylum system crumbles.

He called for European countries to recognise the positive contributions made by refugees and migrants and to honour what he said were “core European values: protecting lives, upholding human rights and promoting tolerance and diversity.”

Lesbos is now the main refugee gateway to Europe, with just under half of those entering the continent in 2015 doing so by using the island as a staging post between the Greek mainland and the nearby shores of Turkey. Despite the worsening weather, and despite a so-called crackdown on Turkey’s people-smugglers, the numbers arriving in December are still higher than in June and July. Over 15 boats arrived on Lesbos on Monday. Across the Greek islands, the average number of refugees arriving each day in December is 3,338, lower than the October peak of 6,828, but far higher than July’s 1,771.

The IOM data is the latest in a slew of different and sometimes contradictory figures being used to quantify the European migration crisis. Other sources include the UN refugee agency, which is not publicly monitoring land arrivals; Frontex, the EU border agency, which sometimes double-counts people; and Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, whose data conflates numbers from the refugee crisis with those that refer to internal European migration.

Between 12 and 14 million Europeans are estimated to have been displaced in the aftermath of the second world war.

IMF bail-out package for SL seen as unavoidable

IMF bail-out package for SL seen as unavoidable
December 25, 2015, 9:52 am

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The rise in global interest rates in the wake of the US Federal Reserve interest rate hike, makes unavoidable for Sri Lanka a bail-out package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), top economist Professor Razeen Salley said.

"IMF doesn’t have confidence in the Lankan government, in particularly its ministry handling the country’s finances, as the maiden budget of the national unity government has ignored fiscal consolidation — one of the top conditions imposed by the lender when  extending support, Professor Salley said at a recent seminar organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

In 2009, Sri Lanka was bailed-out by the IMF from a balance of payment (BOP) crisis—which was triggered by excessive money printing to support subsidies—through a US $ 2.6 billion Stand-By-Arrangement (SBA).

He said ISIS rebels creating greater instability in the Middle East could also hurt Sri Lanka’s economy.  However, the message sent out by Budget 2016 could make the dialogue with the IMF for a potential SBA facility problematic, as the budget seriously lacked fiscal consolidation.

Professor Salley, Visiting Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, pointed out that Sri Lanka has a culture of acting irresponsibly over its finances and then expecting to be bailed out by the IMF. He stressed that continuing this vicious circle of resorting to the IMF is very damaging.

"It prevents a sinner from repenting and it’s another excuse to continue sinning, said Professor Salley. He noted that the last SBA facility was clearly political and was given under very easy conditions.

"The last government pretended it was reforming and the IMF pretended the government was reforming but it kicked the can down the road, he remarked.

"Sri Lanka cannot expect the IMF to come and sort out all its problems as most of the reforms must be carried out internally, he added.

Deputy Director, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka Dr Dushni Weerakoon said at a seminar that since the country’s foreign exchange reserve is dropping fast due to a high import bill, Sri Lanka will require a bail-out package from the IMF or any other institution.

"A bailout package to salvage the economy is inevitable next year because of foreign reserve deterioration, she added.

Next year would be a tough year for Sri Lanka because world commodity prices, especially those for tea, will also experience a slump due to manifold reasons, such as, a global financial crisis and insecurity in the international arena, due to terrorism and economic crises, she said.

விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் தர்மேந்திராக் கலையகத்தின் இன்றைய நிலை

பாழடையுமோ புலிகளின் பாசறை,

நாளடையுமோ புதிய தலைமுறை?

தோள் சுமக்குமோ புதிய தேசத்தை,

வேர் அறுக்குமோ அந்நிய பாசத்தை!

========================== ENB=========================== 

விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் 
தர்மேந்திராக் கலையகத்தின் இன்றைய நிலை
[ வெள்ளிக்கிழமை, 25 டிசெம்பர் 2015, 12:18.15 PM GMT ]

தர்மேந்திரா என்னும் ஒரு போராளிக் கலைஞனின் வீரமரணத்தை தொடர்ந்து விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் தலைவர் பிரபாகரனின் சிந்தனையில் உருவாக்கப்பட்டது தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

இக்கலையகம் பல்வேறு மூத்தகலைஞர்கள் மென்மேலும் வளர்ச்சியடைய ஒரு களமாக இருந்ததுடன், இலைமறைகாயாக இருந்ந பல தமிழீழக் கலைஞர்களை வெளிக்கொண்டு வந்துள்ளது.

இந்தக்கலையகத்தில் பல்வேறுபட்ட விடுதலை எழுச்சிப்பாடல்கள், தத்துவப்பாடல்கள், பக்திப்பாடல்கள் மற்றும் திரைப்படங்கள், குறும்படங்கள், தொடர் நாடகங்கள் என அனைத்திற்கும் பின்னணி இசையையும் வழங்கியிருந்தது.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

அந்தவகையில் 2004ம் ஆண்டு ஏற்பட்ட ஆழிப்பேரலையினால் மக்கள் மீளாத்துயரடைந்து இருந்தபொழுது, அவர்களை ஆற்றும் நோக்கில் சுனாமிப் பாடல்களையும் வெளியீடு செய்திருந்தது.

2009ம் ஆண்டு ஜனவரி மாதம் கிளிநொச்சி நகர் இலங்கை இராணுவத்திடம் வீழ்ச்சியடைந்த போது, கிளிநொச்சி திருநகரில் அமைந்திருந்த இந்தக்கலையகம் இராணுவ ஆக்கிரமிப்புக்குள் சிக்கிக் கொண்டது.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

2015ம் ஆண்டு இன்று வரை குறித்த கலையகம் இராணுவ ஆக்கிரமிப்பிற்குள் சிக்கி சிதைவடைந்து காணப்படுகின்றது.

இந்தக் கலையகக் கலைஞர்கள் தற்பெழுது நிர்க்கதியான நிலையில் தமது கலைத்திறனை வெளிக்கொண்டு வரமுடியாமல் தவிக்கும் நிலை காணப்படுகின்றது.

தர்மேந்திரா கலையகம்

இன்று எமது செய்தியாளர் மேற்படி கலையகத்திற்கு நேரடியாக சென்று உடைந்திருந்த அந்த கலையகத்திற்குள் நின்று ஒளிப்பதிவு செய்துள்ளார்.
நன்றி செய்தி: ஊடகங்கள்

Opposition questions US interest on Sri Lanka

Opposition questions US interest on Sri Lanka

December 16, 2015 15:52

Dullas AlahapperumaThe opposition today questioned the keen interest the United States is having on Sri Lanka with several top US officials already having visited the country this year.

Opposition Parliamentarian Dullas Alahaperuma said that while the Government says it is following a middle line in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, the reality does not seem to be the case.

Alahaperuma said that over the past four months top US officials including Nisha Biswal, Samantha Power and Thomas Shannon visited Sri Lanka and had talks with the Government.

“I the last four months there were six US officials who visited Sri Lanka. In the past six months so many US officials have not gone to any other country. Are they coming with a good intention,” he asked.

Alahaperuma noted that even after the August 17 Parliament elections, before the cabinet took oaths, three Ministers took oaths so they could have talks with US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal who was visiting the country at the time.

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Designate) Thomas Shannon is the latest US official to visit Sri Lanka.

Speaking at an event today Shannon said Sri Lanka is an example of the power of citizens to reinvigorate their democracy, to retake control – through the ballot box – of their country’s trajectory, and to set a course to a brighter future.

He said the US now looks to Sri Lanka to also provide inspiration to others around the world, to show them how justice and compassion can overcome a difficult past and help create a stable and prosperous future, and strengthen a nation’s security, prosperity, and prestige. (Colombo Gazette)