Indian FM Jaishankar in Sri Lanka

 Indian FM Jaishankar in Sri Lanka to discuss partnerships amid project delays, ahead of polls

ECONOMYNEXT – India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will pay a one-day official visit to Colombo on Thursday (20) and meet Sri Lankan leaders to discuss “wide-ranging issues of the partnership”, India said, amid delays of some key Indian projects ahead of a presidential poll in Sri Lanka.

Though Sri Lankan government has claimed that Jaishankar’s visit was a precursor to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who formed the new government last week, the External Affairs Ministry of India did not mention anything on Modi’s visit.

The visit will be Jaishankar’s first bilateral visit after the formation under the new government.

“Reaffirming India’s Neighbourhood First Policy, the visit underlines India’s continued commitment to Sri Lanka as its closest maritime neighbour and time tested friend,” the Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

“The visit will add momentum to connectivity projects and other mutually beneficial cooperation across sectors.”

The visit comes amid delays in key Indian projects including land, oil and gas pipe, and grid connectivity deals, Adani’s wind power plant deals which is facing a legal battle, and port and investment zone projects in the Eastern port district of Trincomalee.

Adani wind power project in the Northern district of Mannar has seen some public protest over environmental concerns after some experts said the project has failed to do a proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The critics against project also protest against its lack of transparency.

Jaishankar visit also comes as Sri Lanka is expected to go for presidential poll within next four months. 

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka are expected to contest in the election to chose the island nation’s 8^th leader.

Sri Lankan leaders have been under pressure from India in the past two decades amid increasing Chinese influence in the island nation as the move is seen as a security threat to India, analysts say.

Docking of a Chinese nuclear submarine in 2014 with the New Delhi government’s approval led to dramatic government change in 2015 presidential poll with ousting of former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

Rajapaksa later accused India for his defeat.

Rajapaksa’s brother Gotabaya in 2021 unilaterally cancelled a key port terminal project given to India unilaterally after promising Jaishankar to sign the deal. 

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to flee the country in 2022 after mass protests due to his wrong economic policies.  

(Colombo/June 20/2024)⍐

தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதிகள்: மரணம் வரை தடுத்து வைக்க அரசாங்கம் முயற்சி

தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதிகள்:  

மரணம் வரை  தடுத்து வைக்க அரசாங்கம் முயற்சி

புதிய மகசீன் சிறைச்சாலைக்கு பயணம் செய்த தமிழ்த் தேசிய மக்கள் முன்னணியின் பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் செல்வராசா கஜேந்திரன் அங்கு தடுத்து வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதிகளுடன் நேற்று செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை (18) காலை நேரில் சந்தித்து உரையாடினார். 

குறிப்பாக, புதிய மகசீன் சிறைச்சாலைக்குச் சென்று 15 வருடங்களாக அரசியல் கைதியாக கொடுஞ்சிறையில் விளக்கமறியலில் தடுத்து வைக்கப்பட்டுருக்கும் கிருபாகரனுடன் (மொறிஸ்) தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதிகள் முகங்கொடுத்து வருகின்ற நெருக்கடிகள் தொடர்பில் கலந்துரையாடி இருந்தார். 

அதன்பின்னர் செல்வராசா கஜேந்திரன் ஊடகங்களுக்கு கருத்துத் தெரிவிக்கையில்:- 

தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதிகள் முகங்கொடுக்கும் நெருக்கடிகள் தொடர்பில் ஆராய்வதற்காக புதிய மகசீன் சிறைச்சாலைக்குச் சென்றிருந்தேன். அங்கு 15ஆண்டுகளாக தடுத்து வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள கிருபாகரனுடன் உரையாடினேன். 

குறிப்பாக கொடிய பயங்கரவாத தடைச்சட்டத்தின் கீழ் கைது செய்யப்பட்டு தடுத்து வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள தமிழ் இளைஞர்கள் இன்னமும் விடுவிக்கப்படாத நிலைமைகளே நீடிக்கின்றன. 

விசேடமாக,ஒரு வழக்கிற்கு மேலதிகமாக பல வழக்குகளை அவர்கள் மீது தொடுத்து மரணிக்கும் வரையில் அவர்களை சிறைக்குள் தடுத்து வைப்பதற்கு அரசாங்கம் முயற்சிக்கின்றது.  

தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதிகளைப் பொறுத்தவரையில் அவர்கள் இரட்டை ஆயுள்காலத்தினை சிறையினுள் கழித்துள்ள போதும் அவர்களை விடுவிக்காது மேலதிக வழக்குகளை தொடுக்கின்ற நிலைமைகள் துரதிஷ்டமானது.  

சர்வதேச சட்டங்களையும், விதிமுறைகளையும் மீறும் வகையிலான பயங்கரவாத தடைச்சட்டத்தினை நீக்குமாறு ஐக்கியநாடுகள் மனித உரிமைகள் பேரவையும், ஐரோப்பிய ஒன்றியமும் வலியுறுத்தியுள்ளபோதும் இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் அதனை கருத்தில் கொள்ளாத நிலைமை தொடர்கின்றது. இதனை சர்வதேச சமூகம் கவனத்தில் கொள்ள வேண்டும் என்றார்.⍐

மூலம்:பதிவு.கொம் Wednesday, June 19, 2024 

 

Britain Election Winner’s First Problem: Fix a Stagnant Economy

After more than a decade of deep budget cuts, slow growth and weak productivity, the country has struggled to overcome years of uncertainty and underinvestment.

By Eshe Nelson

Reporting from London

June 19, 2024 New York Times

“Our economy has truly turned a corner,” Rishi Sunak, Britain’s prime minister, said last week as he introduced his party’s election manifesto, buoyed by recent data showing that Britain’s economy had exited from a recession more strongly than expected in the beginning of the year and that inflation had slowed substantially.

Justifying the optimism, data released on Wednesday showed that consumer prices rose 2 percent in May from a year earlier, touching the Bank of England’s target for the first time since 2021. That was also way down from 11.1 percent in October 2022, when Mr. Sunak started his premiership.

Many economists argue that it will take more than a few good economic indicators to change Britain’s economic path after more than a decade of slow economic growth, chronically weak productivity, high taxes and struggling public services, with a notably underfunded and overstretched National Health Service.

Polls suggest there is a desire to eject the governing Conservative Party from Downing Street, after 14 years, in next month’s general election. But lawmakers in the opposition Labour Party have already warned that — should they win — they will inherit a hobbled economy with little room for bold changes.

How did Britain get here?

A focus on austerity

When the Conservative Party came to power in 2010, the country was reeling from the great financial crisis. Debt had jumped higher, and the country’s budget deficit was at a postwar high.

David Cameron, then prime minister, and his chancellor, George Osborne, placed the burden heavily on reducing government spending, rather than tax increases. What followed were years of austerity as government departments faced huge cuts to their budgets.

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Spending for services such as courts, libraries and mass transit was slashed, but so were budgets to make investments, slowing or halting the maintenance and construction of schools, hospitals and prisons. Benefits for the unemployed and low earners were cut deeply.

Britain “had quite a severe program of austerity,” said Anna Valero, an economist at the London School of Economics. It was arguably too deep, and therefore “hampering the recovery, hampering the extent to which our economy could invest,” she added.

A legacy of stagnation

For many economists, the past 14 years have been defined by Britain’s stagnant productivity growth. The amount of economic output for every hour worked has hardly budged. It’s the key determiner of living standards: Wages go up as productivity improves. In Britain, wages, once adjusted for inflation, are at roughly the same level they were at the end of 2007.

“We have to recognize that this is a pretty deep hole that the economy’s got into,” said Diane Coyle, a professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge. “A lot of countries have lower productivity growth. We’ve got none.”

This decade and a half of lost wage growth has cost the average worker 10,700 pounds (about $13,600) a year, according to the Resolution Foundation, a research organization. Middle-income Britons are 20 percent poorer than their peers in Germany and 9 percent poorer than those in France, the think tank estimated.

The enduring effect of Brexit

Though the economic impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union is still playing out, some of the cost of that decision is already apparent. After the referendum, years of policy uncertainty through Theresa May’s government brought business investment to a halt. Then the new arrangement with the European Union erected trade barriers across most industries, making work harder and more expensive for everyone from Scottish fishermen to London’s bankers.

Instead of investing in infrastructure, innovation and skills, Britain’s government was distracted by Brexit for a long time, Ms. Valero said. “If everyone is concerned with how to actually do Brexit, how to make it work and all the political fallout of it, of course, people have less attention to focus on these long-term issues,” she said.

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Broken Britain

A long period of low investment and a squeeze on public spending has left many with the feeling that Britain is broken.

Despite the heaviest tax burden in 70 years, many public services appear on the brink of collapse. More than seven million cases are on the N.H.S. waiting list, social care is severely underfunded and understaffed, and spending per school student is the same as it was 14 years ago. Though unemployment is low, there has been a sharp increase in the number people out of the work force because of long-term ill health.

The list of challenges is long and varied: A backlog in the courts means long waits for criminal trials. There’s a lack of affordable housing, and rents are at a record high. Burdensome regulation and the power of local authorities inhibit housing construction but also green energy infrastructure, data centers and labs. The number of people using food banks has doubled in the past five years. Public transport has been hobbled by strikes, understaffing and bad upkeep. And there are endless complaints about potholes all over the country.

The Liz Truss experiment

The turmoil was most glaringly evident in the 49-day premiership of Liz Truss, who set about to change Britain’s economic policy only to have investors balk at her ideas and force her into a U-turn and eventual resignation.

Ms. Truss had the right diagnosis — the need for faster long-term economic growth — but the wrong medicine for Britain’s problem. She hoped to strengthen the economy by cutting taxes and borrowing heavily to do so, right on the heels of large amounts of spending to support households through the economic shocks of the pandemic and energy crisis after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She shattered the Conservative Party’s reputation for good financial management. Since then, policy from both major political parties has focused on showing restraint.

Both parties have pledged not to raise Britain’s three big tax rates — personal income taxes, National Insurance and V.A.T., a type of sales tax. But many people will still find themselves paying higher taxes as their wages increase, pulling them into the higher tax brackets, which will remain frozen for several more years.

What’s next?

Many economists say tax promises will be hard to deliver. There are huge demands to spend more on public services, especially to meet commitments to increase military spending and fix the N.H.S., and other areas of government, like the courts, cannot withstand more cuts. To stick to pledges to reduce debt, taxes will have to go up if spending cannot be cut further.

But the tight situation that Britain’s next leaders will find themselves in could be eased if there is a proper sustained increase in economic growth. So far, Britain’s economic growth has been benefiting from an increase in the population, particularly because of migration. The economy is the same size per person that it was at the last election in 2019.

“If we’re actually thinking about sustainably growing, it comes down to productivity growth,” Ms. Valero said. That would also lead to higher wages and better living standards, which would require more investment in infrastructure, education and innovation, and a planning system that made that investment possible, she said.

In the meantime, voters will decide which political party’s plan for growth they prefer on July 4.⍐

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has lashed out at NATO

 NATO chief blaming China to ‘vent frustration’ over unproductive Ukraine peace conference

NATO's stamina wane Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has lashed out at NATO after NATO chief smeared China for "backing" Russia in the battlefield, saying that as a legacy of the Cold War and the world's biggest military group and playing a certain role in the Ukraine crisis, it should reflect on itself, rather than smear and attack China.

Blaming China is more of a way to vent frustration over a largely unproductive Ukraine peace conference and also serves to deflect pressure over the stagnation in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, where long-term military aid to Ukraine has not yielded the anticipated results, analysts said.

During an event at the Wilson Center in Washington DC on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused China of quietly backing Moscow and sending it military supplies, and also condemned China for fueling the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, according to media reports. 

In response, Lin Jian, a spokesperson from Chinese Foreign Ministry told Tuesday's press briefing that NATO is the legacy of the Cold War and the world's biggest military group. "The world has seen what kind of role NATO has played in the Ukraine crisis. What the NATO should do is reflect on itself, rather than smear and attack China," he said. 

Lin urged relevant parties to stop deflecting the blame and sowing discord, stop fueling the flame and inciting bloc confrontation, and take concrete actions to promote the political settlement of the crisis.

Cui Heng, a research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, believes that Stoltenberg made the remarks to vent frustration over an unproductive peace conference on Ukraine.

The two-day peace conference held in Switzerland came to an anticlimactic close on Sunday, leaving some key regional powers including Brazil, India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia failing to sign up to a joint communique issued at the end of the gathering.

China is not a creator of or a party to the Ukraine crisis. We are committed to promoting talks for peace. China's objective and just position and constructive role are widely recognized by the international community, Lin emphasized at the press conference. 

NATO's stance is aimed at shifting the blame for the current deadlock in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said Zhang Hong, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

NATO's military support for Ukraine has become a long-term mechanism but Western interference in the conflict has not yielded the expected results, leading it to blame China for unfavorable outcomes on the battlefield, Zhang explained to the Global Times. 

NATO defense ministers recently agreed on a plan to provide long-term security assistance and military training to Ukraine, according to Euronews. Stoltenberg declared that since the war started, allies have provided around €40 billion worth of military support each year. "I have proposed that we sustain this level of support as a minimum for as long as it takes," the NATO chief said.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has now been going on for over two years, has heightened concerns and security anxieties across Europe. Any country maintaining normal cooperation with Russia, even in general trade, could be seen by Western nations as supporting the country, he said. "Prolonging the Ukraine-Russia conflict could expand its spillover risks," Zhang said. 

On Monday, John Kirby, the US National Security Council's Strategic Communications Coordinator, stated that winning the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a prerequisite for Ukraine's NATO membership. 

Raising an unattainable demand with Ukraine exposes the real intention of the West, which is to prolong the Ukraine war in order to exhaust Russia and divide the world, experts noted. 

Cui said that it obviously exceeds the authority of NATO as a military bloc to impose economic measures against China. However, Zhang warned that the possibility of the US using long-arm sanctions to disrupt normal interactions between China and Russia cannot be ruled out if the situation escalates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. At the same time, the US may also push more actively for a decoupling of China and Europe under the guise of security and politics, Zhang added.

By GT staff reporters Published: Jun 18, 2024