Iran and Russia Move into Sri Lanka After China’s Belt and Road Disaster
Iranian President Raisi visited Sri Lanka to launch a hydropower project, and a Russian company has taken over China’s white-elephant airport.
Iranian President Raisi visited Sri Lanka to launch a hydropower project, and a Russian company has taken over China’s white-elephant airport.
Sri Lanka will mark its fifth Easter since the harrowing April 21, 2019, jihadist suicide bombings that killed 275 people and injured dozens of others, deliberately targeting crowded churches and popular hotel brunch spots.
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) released a report this week that found China has become a leading power in operating seaports across the globe, as well as “the world’s largest trading country and second-largest economy.”
The world’s biggest kidney stone is getting a lot of attention after doctors removed it from a patient in Sri Lanka on June 1.
The Chinese state-run Sinopec oil company signed a deal on Monday with the government of Sri Lanka that will allow it to conduct operations in the impoverished island nation for the next 20 years.
Russian Foreign Ministry official Zamir Kabulov said on Wednesday that Russia and India are taking steps to use their respective national currencies for trading with each other, instead of U.S. dollars or euros.
The Indian government’s representative office in Sri Lanka used the term “militarization” in a post on Twitter on Saturday to describe China’s recent actions in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the sovereign island nation of Taiwan from China’s southeastern coast, the Hindu reported on Sunday, noting that it was the first time New Delhi had used such strong rhetoric to refer to the China-Taiwan dispute.
The socialist government of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe charged student protesters on Monday with violating the “Prevention of Terrorism Act” by holding a peaceful march, the latest in a string of actions supporters of the nation’s anti-government protest movement say are a “witch hunt” against legitimate complaints against corruption and incompetence.
Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled his country in July after protesters stormed his official residence and threw a four-day house party, is applying for a U.S. green card and looking to settle in America, Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror reported on Thursday.
Indian Commerce Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam predicted this week that New Delhi will conduct up to $9 billion worth of trade with Russia and Sri Lanka combined over the next two months, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
A parade of impoverished, repressive socialist regimes lined up on Wednesday and Thursday to condemn Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for visiting Taiwan — an attempt to court Chinese investment and political support as their economies sink and popular discontent reaches a fever pitch.
At least six people arrived illegally in India’s Tamil Nadu state on Wednesday after traveling there by boat from Sri Lanka, an island nation located 34 miles off India’s southern coast at its shortest distance, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday, noting that the incident was indicative of a growing migration wave as dozens of Sri Lankans have fled the financially troubled country for India since its economy effectively collapsed in March.
China recently deployed a survey vessel to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port — which Colombo ceded to Beijing on a 99-year lease in 2017 after defaulting on debt to China — Reuters reported on Thursday, noting that the vessel’s deployment to Sri Lanka has irked nearby India which denounced the Chinese research mission as a possible threat to New Delhi’s “security and economic interests.”
The head of a major fast food chain in Ireland has expressed concern that the country may face food shortages this coming winter, telling the general public that they should stock up.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ignored cries of anger and desperation from farmers and provincial officials last weekend by pressing ahead with a climate change agenda that will dramatically reduce Canada’s use of fertilizer – the same ruinous strategy that drove Dutch farmers into revolt and destroyed the agriculture of Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan Health Ministry on Monday asked residents to resume using face masks, social distancing, and aggressive hand washing to control the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.
The armed forces of Sri Lanka executed a violent raid on the peaceful “Occupy Galle Face” protest camp located in the heart of the national capital Colombo on Friday, the first major order by newly-minted President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the face of months of calls for the entire Sri Lankan government to resign.
China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday denounced the strong U.S. dollar as a “crisis” for the rest of the world because it increases the “financial risks facing emerging markets” and allegedly makes it harder for other nations to implement anti-inflationary policies.
Acting President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe won Wednesday’s presidential vote – to serve out fleeing former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term – with 134 votes in an “election” by parliamentary elites immediately rejected by the nation’s mass protest movement.
Sri Lanka’s ambassador to China Palitha Kohona told the Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times in an interview published on Monday that anyone blaming Beijing’s predatory loans for Sri Lanka’s economic disaster was spreading “convenient propaganda” and calling China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) a “debt trap” is a “gross exaggeration.”
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that daily coronavirus infections have risen from ten to 25. The ministry advised residents to resume masking, social distancing, and getting vaccination boosters.
The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is hoping to take out yet another billion-dollar loan, open a separate $1.5 billion credit line, and activate a $1.5 billion currency swap with communist China, Sri Lanka’s envoy to Beijing told Bloomberg News on Friday.
The political crisis triggered by months of socialist economic collapse in Sri Lanka continued on Wednesday with violent clashes between protesters and soldiers, resulting in upwards of 80 people hospitalized in one day and the military announcing soldiers were “empowered” to attack civilians if deemed necessary.
Now-former President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, reportedly taking a military jet to the Maldives, on Wednesday shortly before he had agreed to resign from office.
What appeared to be throngs of hundreds of protesters remained at the home of the president of Sri Lanka as of Tuesday after occupying the residence and sending President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing to an undisclosed location this weekend.
China’s state-run Global Times published an editorial piece on Monday in which it attempted to deflect Beijing’s share of responsibility for Sri Lanka’s current economic crisis, caused in part by Colombo’s recent decision to default on its massive foreign debt, including a large amount owed to China.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka officially confirmed his intention to resign on Monday following a national wave of vandalism and mob protests that culminated with apparently thousands of people storming his house and bathing in his pool.
(AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence on Saturday shortly before protesters, angered by an unprecedented economic crisis, overran the compound and stormed his nearby office.
Embattled socialist President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka revealed on Wednesday that he had called Russian strongman Vladimir Putin seeking help to purchase oil amid what the nation’s prime minister has called the “complete collapse” of Sri Lanka’s economy.
The seemingly ceaseless economic crisis that has left most of Sri Lanka with no food, fuel, medicine, or basic goods and has severely compromised the nation’s power supply has prompted a growing wave of child malnutrition, the BBC observed in a report on Monday citing mothers in the country desperate to keep their children nourished.
A 53-year-old man died in Sri Lanka’s western town of Aluthgama on Tuesday while waiting in line for gasoline, which has been strictly rationed in the country since March because of a dire financial crisis, Sri Lanka’s News First website reported Wednesday.
The prime minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, declared in remarks to the nation’s parliament on Wednesday that its economy had “completely collapsed.”
Sri Lanka Education Minister Susil Premajayantha on Sunday encouraged public schools nationwide to switch to online learning due to worsening fuel shortages that have left many Sri Lankans unable to transport their children to schools, Sri Lanka’s Ada Derana news website reported.
Soldiers in Sri Lanka opened fire this weekend in response to at least two situations in which mobs formed around gasoline stations, either seeking to buy fuel or protesting the shortages.
Two men died in Sri Lanka this week while waiting in hours-long lines for fuel amid the country’s ongoing financial crisis, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Thursday.
Sri Lanka’s federal government on Monday approved a proposal that would shorten the work week of most public sector staff to four days so that they will have time to farm their own food crops, Reuters reported on Tuesday, noting the measure aims to combat Sri Lanka’s worsening food shortages caused by a recent economic crisis.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday said he would ask China for foreign aid again, after Beijing turned down a proposed $1.5 billion currency swap. China was a major contributor to Sri Lanka’s economic implosion, having destroyed some of the island’s key industries and bankrolled its corrupt socialist government with loans that could never be repaid.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Saturday that his country might increase its purchases of discounted oil from Russia, and accept more financial assistance from China, as the island nation spirals deeper into an economic crisis.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden presented the government of Sri Lanka — which is currently incapable of purchasing basic goods such as food and fuel due to a dire financial crisis — with an “environmental conservation” workshop this week, Sri Lanka’s News First website reported Tuesday.
Sri Lanka’s socialist government announced plans on Monday to create a private agriculture sector to help alleviate famine amid a national financial crisis that has caused food shortages since March, Sri Lanka’s News First website reported.