Xi holds talks with Sri Lankan President in Beijing

 

Xi holds talks with Sri Lankan President in Beijing

By Deng Xiaoci, Shen Sheng and Zhang Yuying Published: Jan 15, 2025 

China will actively support Sri Lanka in focusing on economic development and the two countries should jointly foster new highlights in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, as well as cooperation in modern agriculture, digital economy and marine economy, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

China's efforts in further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization will bring new opportunities for Sri Lanka's development, Xi said when holding talks with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is in China for a state visit.

Noting that China and Sri Lanka enjoy a traditional friendship, Xi said bilateral relations have maintained healthy and stable development over the past 68 years, setting an example of friendly coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation between different countries.

With joint efforts, China and Sri Lanka have continuously promoted strategic cooperative partnership featuring mutual assistance and ever-lasting friendship. High-quality Belt and Road cooperation and cooperation in various fields have achieved fruitful results, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples, Xi said.

The two countries should have a keen grasp of bilateral relations from a strategic perspective and jointly build a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future, he said.

Dissanayake kicked off a four-day state visit to China on Tuesday, according to Sri Lanka local media Sunday Times. This marks the leader's first visit to China after taking office. 

China and Sri Lanka have long been each other's friend and close neighbor. Since our two countries established diplomatic ties in 1957, the bilateral relationship has stood the test of the changing international landscape, always maintained sound and steady growth, and set up a fine example of friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries different in size, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun briefed on January 10. 

China stands ready to work with Sri Lanka through the upcoming visit to carry forward our time-honored friendship, deepen political mutual trust, and expand high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and practical cooperation in various fields for continuous new progress in advancing the China-Sri Lanka strategic cooperative partnership featuring sincerity, mutual support and ever-lasting friendship as well as more benefit for the two peoples, the spokesperson also said. 

'New heights' for ties  

Luo Zhaohui, Director of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, and  Vijitha Herath, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism of Sri Lanka, signed on Wednesday several cooperation documents, including intergovernmental economic and technical cooperation agreement, and MoU on strengthening cooperation in social and livelihood development.

Sri Lankan president's visit will undoubtedly further promote bilateral exchanges and policy coordination between China and Sri Lanka, laying a crucial foundation for future cooperation and the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Long Xingchun, a professor from the School of International Relations at Sichuan International Studies University, told the Global Times.

After his election victory last year, Dissanayake's visit to China is his second foreign trip and his first visit to China. This visit can be seen as a continuation and deepening of the cooperation results achieved by previous governments, aiming to further elevate the China-Sri Lanka partnership to new heights, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.

Sri Lanka was one of the first countries to join the BRI, and the cooperation in infrastructure has greatly enhanced Sri Lanka's domestic infrastructure in the country, Qian said.

Sri Lanka is an important BRI partner country. Over the past decade, China has undertaken landmark projects in Sri Lanka, including Colombo Port City, Hambantota Port, highways, power plants and water conservancy infrastructure. These projects have significantly improved Sri Lanka's infrastructure, laying a solid foundation for its economic development.

Dissanayake took office when Sri Lanka faced grave economic difficulties. Tasks such as addressing external challenges, economic development, job creation and increasing fiscal revenue cannot be accomplished without cooperation with China as a major power. Therefore, cooperation under the BRI has become an increasingly important engine for the development of bilateral relations, injecting much-needed momentum for the South Asian country, Long said. 

China's growing influence in South Asian and Indian Ocean countries such as Sri Lanka is an inevitable outcome of global economic development and globalization. As sovereign nations, countries in South Asia need to develop diplomatic relations with various countries, including China, India, Japan and the US. The rise of China's influence in the region is a natural result of nations in the region expanding their relationships, Long noted.

Inevitable development 

Indian news outlet Firstpost in a lengthy article published on Wednesday wrote that "amid the growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka, India has emerged as a strong counterbalance."  The Indian media's report accused that China's "aggressive economic tactics" will bring "critical implications for Sri Lanka's sovereignty and the stability of the broader region." 

Experts pointed out that India's wariness of China's presence in the Indian Ocean primarily stems from New Delhi's narrow geopolitical perspective where India views South Asia as its own sphere of influence and does not respect other countries' rights to develop friendly and cooperative relations with China. 

In an era of globalization, cooperation between South Asian and Indian Ocean countries and China is inevitable and beneficial to India as well. If India cannot move beyond its narrow geopolitical thinking, it will be difficult to advance the development of South Asia, Long said. 

"Sri Lanka and China have close economic, diplomatic and cultural exchanges," said Ruwan Ranasinghe, deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism of Sri Lanka in a recent interview with Xinhua, stressing that high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and major projects between the two countries such as the Colombo Port City and Hambantota Port have provided important impetus for Sri Lanka's economic recovery and showcased a strong junction between the two sides."⍐ 

Qatar announces Gaza ceasefire

Qatar announces Gaza ceasefire

January 15, 2025 | 7:18 PM GMT

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign affairs minister, spoke on Jan. 15, as Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire.

       Israel and Hamas agree to ceasefire deal, including hostage release, Biden says

A hostage and ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel has been reached Wednesday following more than 15 months of extraordinary bloodshed and violence in Gaza, President Joe Biden said Wednesday. Implementation of the agreement is to start on Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said at a news conference announcing the deal in Doha, the Qatari capital, where intense negotiations have taken place over the past several weeks.

The agreement, which requires ratification by a vote of Israel’s cabinet, follows an intense period of meetings and calls over the past several days, including by Biden to the leaders of Israel and mediating partners Qatar and Egypt. Steve Witkoff, President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, has also played an instrumental role, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend to express Trump’s interest in attaining a deal before his inauguration on Monday.

Draft of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal

There is a draft ceasefire deal for the Israel-Hamas war. Here are the terms — and tensions

Hamas has agreed to a draft of the ceasefire deal, two officials confirmed, but Israeli officials say details are still being worked out.

By  Associated Press 

Lee Keath, Samy Magdy 

Updated Jan. 14, 2025 

https://whyy.org/article

If the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal goes according to the current draft, then fighting will stop in Gaza for 42 days, and dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed. In this first phase Israeli troops will pull back to the edges of Gaza, and many Palestinians will be able to return to what remains of their homes as stepped-up aid flows in.

The question is if the ceasefire will survive beyond that first phase.

That will depend on even more negotiations meant to begin within weeks. In those talks, Israel, Hamas, and the U.S, Egyptian and Qatari mediators will have to tackle the tough issue of how Gaza will be governed, with Israel demanding the elimination of Hamas.

Without a deal within those 42 days to begin the second phase, Israel could resume its campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas – even as dozens of hostages remain in the militants’ hands.

Hamas has agreed to a draft of the ceasefire deal, two officials confirmed, but Israeli officials say details are still being worked out, meaning some terms could change, or the whole deal could even fall through. Here is a look at the plan and potential pitfalls in the draft seen by the Associated Press.

Swapping hostages for imprisoned Palestinians

During the first phase, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. By the end of the phase, all living women, children and older people held by the militants should be freed.

Some 100 hostages remain captive inside Gaza, a mix of civilians and soldiers, and the military believes at least a third them are dead.

On the first official day of the ceasefire, Hamas is to free three hostages, then another four on the seventh day. After that, it will make weekly releases.

Which hostages and how many Palestinians will be released is complicated. The 33 will include women, children and those over 50 — almost all civilians, but the deal also commits Hamas to free all living female soldiers. Hamas will release living hostages first, but if the living don’t complete the 33 number, bodies will be handed over. Not all hostages are held by Hamas, so getting other militant groups to hand them over could be an issue.

In exchange, Israel will free 30 Palestinian women, children or elderly for each living civilian hostage freed. For each female soldier freed, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 serving life sentences. In exchange for bodies handed over by Hamas, Israel will free all women and children it has detained from Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Dozens of men, including soldiers, will remain captive in Gaza, pending the second phase.

Israeli pullbacks and the return of Palestinians

During the proposed deal’s first phase, Israeli troops are to pull back into a buffer zone about a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide inside Gaza along its borders with Israel.

That will allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including in Gaza City and northern Gaza. With most of Gaza’s population driven into massive, squalid tent camps, Palestinians are desperate to get back to their homes, even though many were destroyed or heavily damaged by Israel’s campaign.

But there are complications. During the past year of negotiations, Israel has insisted it must control the movement of Palestinians to the north to ensure Hamas does not take weapons back into those areas.

Throughout the war, the Israeli military has severed the north from the rest of Gaza by holding the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a belt across the strip where troops cleared out the Palestinian population and set up bases. That allowed them to search people fleeing from the north into central Gaza and bar anyone trying to return.

The draft seen by the AP specifies that Israel is to leave the corridor. In the first week, troops would withdraw from the main north-south coastal road — Rasheed Street — which would open one route for Palestinians returning. By the 22nd day of the ceasefire, Israeli troops are to leave the entire corridor.

Still, as talks continued Tuesday, an Israeli official insisted the military will keep control of Netzarim and that Palestinians returning north would have to pass inspections there, though he declined to provide details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed negotiations.

Working out those contradictions could bring frictions.

Throughout the first phase, Israel will retain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt, including the Rafah Crossing. Hamas dropped demands that Israel pull out of this area.

Humanitarian aid

In the first phase, aid entry to Gaza is to be ramped up to hundreds of trucks a day of food, medicine, supplies and fuel to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. That is far more than Israel has allowed in throughout the war.

For months, aid groups have struggled to distribute to Palestinians even the trickle of aid entering Gaza because of Israeli military restrictions and rampant robberies of aid trucks by gangs. An end to fighting should alleviate that.

The need is great. Malnutrition and diseases are rampant among Palestinians, crammed into tents and short on food and clean water. Hospitals have been damaged and short of supplies. The draft deal specifies that equipment will be allowed in to build shelters for tens of thousands whose homes were destroyed and to rebuild infrastructure like electricity, sewage, communications and road systems.

But here, too, implementation could bring problems.

Even before the war, Israel has restricted entry of some equipment, arguing it could be used for military purposes by Hamas. Another Israeli official said arrangements are still being worked out over aid distribution and cleanup, but the plan is to prevent Hamas from having any role.

Further complicating matters, Israel’s government is still committed to its plan to ban UNRWA from operating and to cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government. The UN agency is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The second phase

If all of that works out, the sides must still tackle the second phase. Negotiations over it are to begin on Day 16 of the ceasefire.

Phase two’s broad outlines are laid out in the draft: All remaining hostages are to be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.”

But that seemingly basic exchange opens up much bigger issues.

Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated and it cannot rearm — ensuring Hamas no longer runs Gaza. Hamas says it will not hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from everywhere in Gaza.

So the negotiations will have to get both sides to agree to an alternative for governing Gaza. Effectively, Hamas has to agree to its own removal from power — something it has said it is willing to do, but it may seek to keep a hand in any future government, which Israel has vehemently rejected.

The draft agreement says a deal on the second phase must be worked out by the end of the first.

Pressure will be on both sides to reach a deal, but what happens if they don’t? It could go in many directions.

Hamas had wanted written guarantees that a ceasefire would continue as long as needed to agree on phase two. It has settled for verbal guarantees from the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

Israel, however, has given no assurances. So Israel could threaten new military action to pressure Hamas in the negotiations or could outright resume its military campaign, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened.

Hamas and the mediators are betting the momentum from the first phase will make it difficult for him to do that. Relaunching the assault would risk losing the remaining hostages — infuriating many against Netanyahu — though stopping short of destroying Hamas will also anger key political partners.

The third phase

The third phase is likely to be less contentious: The bodies of remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a 3- to 5-year reconstruction plan to be carried out in Gaza under international supervision.⍐