‘Sinhala Neighbourhood First’ approach unfolds in New Delhi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 February 2020, 22:20 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was not reciprocating Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “confidence” that Colombo would “realize the expectations of the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace, and respect within a united Sri Lanka.” Both the leaders held a joint media presence in New Delhi on Saturday. Mr Modi said that it would be “necessary to carry forward the process of reconciliation with the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka.” Mr Rajapaksa, who read out a statement after Modi’s speech, was not making any reference to “united” or “13th Amendment”. The same pattern was also witnessed during SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit to India in November 2019. It is evident that Mr Modi was making concessions to Colombo in return for its compliance to the maritime security concerns of New Delhi, political observers in Jaffna said.
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New Delhi to discuss maritime security, BIMSTEC ‘progress’ with Mahinda Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2020, 21:28 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is on a five-day visit to India for high-level diplomatic meetings combined with religious veneration starting from Friday. “This visit will focus mostly on maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. Both countries will seek to also bring the ties back on focus and build on the gains that were reached during (Gotabaya’s) visit,” reported The Print, an Indian digital newspaper. Genocidal Sri Lanka currently holds the chair of the regional alliance, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). “Sri Lanka’s participation in the BIMSTEC, which is a crucial part of Modi’s ‘Look East’ policy, has moved at a rather slow pace,” The Print report said.
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Washington synchronises geographic conception of “Indo-Pacific” with New Delhi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 January 2020, 20:53 GMT]
Two high-ranking US national-security and State Department diplomats who attended the Raisina Dialogue conference held in New Delhi 14-16 January 2020 have gone on record stating that the US had expanded the territorial scope of the geopolitical notion “Indo-Pacific” to be more or less the same as what was being defined by the New Delhi Establishment. US Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger said the American conception of “Indo-Pacific” was now “roughly aligned with the Indian conception” and that it included East Africa and the Gulf. “More than Hollywood to Bollywood, it is really now California to Kilimanjaro,” he said at the session titled “Coalitions and Consensus: In Defense of Values that Matter” on 19 January.
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IC accountable for Gotabaya reneging on justice commitments: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 January 2020, 22:24 GMT]
Several countries in the International Community (IC) supported the Sri Lankan State that waged a genocidal war against the Tamils. The Tamil national liberation struggle and its taproot [the LTTE] were wiped out through a genocidal war by the SL State with the backing of other states in the IC. It was Gotabaya Rajapaksa who commanded the genocidal war in 2008 and 2009. Now, what are these countries going to do to enforce international justice, especially after Mr Rajapaksa pronouncing all the missing as dead, asked Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian S Shritharan at the SL Parliament on Tuesday. Today, we are voicing for justice as a nation subjected to genocide. We are not merely speaking from a suppressed situation or a coated environment of so-called development, Mr Shritharan said adding that Tamils were no longer begging for justice, but demanding international justice.
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US-India ‘think-tankers’ advise New Delhi to put Tamil concerns on the backburner

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 January 2020, 21:34 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra has been successful in culminating a two-year-long “silent background work” to rebuild relations with Rajapaksa siblings, observes Constantino Xavier, a research fellow at Brookings India in New Delhi. In an interview to Rediff, the Portuguese academic, who specialises foreign policy and defence in South Asia says, however, India was risking that Mr Gotabaya could repeat the game Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Olie played with India during the last three years. Mr Oli “gave in to all of Indian protocol demands and political optics, visited Delhi first, proclaimed India first, then waited for India to forget about him, and went on to do more business with China,” the US-India think-tanker told Rediff.com on Thursday.
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Visits by Chinese, Russian foreign ministers to coincide with the stopover of US top diplomat

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2020, 23:04 GMT]
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to arrive in Colombo on Monday, one day ahead of the already-announced visit by Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Russian FM is scheduled to visit Colombo on his way to attend a conference on geopolitics organised by the Indian External Affairs Ministry and Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. In the meantime, Alice Wells, the US principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, scheduled to attend the Indian conference, is also arriving in Colombo on Monday. The Chinese and Russian Foreign Ministers, as well as the US Deputy State Secretary, will be meeting Gotabaya Rajapaksa, media reports in Colombo said.
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Sampanthan indirectly implicates India, US, EU, UK, Japan, Norway for Tamil predicament post-2009

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 January 2020, 23:10 GMT]
Despite all the valid criticisms against the revisionist TNA hierarchy, which has misled the occupied nation of Eezham Tamils by deviating from the fundamentals of the democratically mandated aspiration after 2009, one should appreciate TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan for strait-forwardly reiterating, especially in recent times, the names of the regional and international formations ultimately responsible to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The countries and the alliances mentioned by Mr Sampanthan include India, USA, Japan, Norway and the European Union with the UK. Sampanthan refers to the block of countries excluding India as the “international community”, and these countries were formally represented by identifiable individuals who served the formation of Tokyo Co-Chair Donors. A troika of diplomats was representing India at the height of the war.
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Gotabaya backtracks on Colombo’s assurances to New Delhi: Sumanthiran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2020, 23:31 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran has said that SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was regressing from the assurances made by his predecessors, including his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, to New Delhi on three occasions about the full implementation of the 13th Amendment. When India intervened in 1987, Colombo turned towards the “right direction” and started to “acknowledge the diversity of its peoples,” by amending the Constitution, the TNA parliamentarian said. The equal status between the peoples in the island is not dependent on their respective numerical strength. “This principle must be acknowledged if our democracy is to survive and indeed flourish, and not regress into naked majoritarianism. Regretfully, in his address to Parliament on 3rd January 2020 the President has articulated such a regressive position,” he said.
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Maha Sangha wants anti-LTTE forces mobilised to conquer economic war, international challenges

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 January 2020, 22:22 GMT]
The Maha Sangha of the Sinhala Buddhist Theravada Establishment in the island staged an all-night Pirith Chanting Ceremony at SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence in Colombo on Saturday. While delivering a special sermon, Professor Ven Medagoda Abayatissa Thero “pointed out that the alliance that came together to defeat the LTTE should join again to conquer the economic war and international challenges,” a news release issued by the SL Presidential Secretariat revealed on Sunday. The Maha Sangha was invoking “blessings on the President, war heroes, the citizens and the country,” the news release further stated.
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Modi wants “close and extensive” cooperation with Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 January 2020, 23:40 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was dialling to seven leaders of five neighbouring countries, except Pakistan, to greet the rulers chose to greet both Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa on the New Year Day. A statement issued by the office of Indian Prime Minister stated that Mr Modi wanted to expand “close and extensive cooperation” with Colombo. Rajapaksa siblings reciprocated his wishes and expressed their keen desire to enhance relations further, the statement said.
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Families of missing Tamils in Vanni turn their protest against EPDP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2019, 17:41 GMT]
The families of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military in the genocidal war up to 2009 have turned the focus of their protest against SL Minister Douglas Devananda, who has been a close ally of the Rajapaksa regime. Mr Devananda's EPDP was a former Tamil paramilitary group, operated by the occupying Sinhala military. The families have been irked by the attempts by Devananda to dilute their continues protests that have passed one thousand days this month.
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Sinhalese have right of return to North, says lawyer from South rejecting Tamil rights

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 December 2019, 22:03 GMT]
The North is “just as much the historical habitation of the Sinhalese as it is of the Tamils”. And, the Tamils “do not have a right to sovereignty and self-determination adverse to the rights of the Sinhalese and other groups in the island,” writes Attorney-at-Law Dharshan Weerasekara, a Sinhalese, in an article ‘clarifying’ a judgement delivered by the SL Supreme Court in 2014. The denial of Tamil homeland and Tamils right of self-determination comes as the cabinet led by SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa also refused to allow the Tamil version of the SL ‘national anthem’ at the forthcoming ‘independence day’ celebrations on 04 February 2020. “Sinhalese have moral and historical rights in the North and East of the country, and this would include the right of return,” the Sinhala lawyer claimed in his response.
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Russian FM to visit Colombo before proceeding to New Delhi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 December 2019, 23:28 GMT]
After conducting joint naval training with Iran and China in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman in December 2019, Russia is dispatching its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Colombo on 14 January 2020. He will proceed to New Delhi on the following day. In the meantime, China, Russia and Iran are conducting a four-day naval drill between Friday and Monday. The trilateral training is the first of its kind and comes amidst escalating tensions between the US and Iran since 2018. China is sending a guided-missile destroyer, Xining, to the drill, stated China's Defence Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian in a statement on Thursday.
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Gotabaya: Only concerned about security aspects of Hambantota

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 December 2019, 23:15 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was only seeking to ensure the security aspects of the Hambantota port and he doesn't intend to renegotiate the commercial deal as a whole, reported Xinhua, the state-operated news agency of China this week. "I am now not here to renegotiate the agreement as it is a commercial contract and I am not worried about the commercial aspect. But I am concerned about the security aspect as to whether there are any security lapses. That is what I am discussing with China,” Xinhua quoted Gotabaya Rajapaksa as saying on Thursday.
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Indian Navy Chief on 4-day visit to discuss maritime relations in Colombo with Trinco visit

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 December 2019, 23:52 GMT]
The Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Karambir Singh, is on a four-day visit to Colombo from 19 to 22 December 2019 to “consolidate and enhance the bilateral maritime relations between India and Sri Lanka,” a news release from the Indian Navy said. Admiral Karambir Singh was also scheduled to attend the passing out parade of midshipmen at the Naval & Maritime Academy, Trincomalee on Sunday, the report said. Upon his arrival to the island on Thursday, Karambir Singh called on SL Defence Secretary Major General (retd) Kamal Gunaratne.
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Colombo wants ‘Sea of Lanka’ geopolitics to accompany Indian Ocean/Indo-Pacific outlook

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 December 2019, 23:12 GMT]
Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu was visiting Colombo meeting the newly elected SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his sibling, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the SL Prime Minister and former President on Friday. During his visit, the Japanese Foreign Minister was talking about strengthening bilateral trade, infrastructure-development and high-tech assistance to the island along with Japan’s (or Quad powers’) overarching geopolitical agenda known as the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP). SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, welcoming the Japanese offer was, however, more interested about collaborating with Japan to create an employment-oriented and technology-driven economy in the island while keeping the Indian Ocean “a zone of peace free of any conflict”. At the same time, Mr Gotabaya was insinuating a different “message” through some private media outlets to the Quad countries.
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New Delhi appeases Colombo as Eelam Tamil leaders fail to demand international mediation

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 November 2019, 18:45 GMT]
While Eelam Tamil political parties, particularly the TNA, are yet to place their demands to the geopolitical actors of an internationally mediated settlement to the national question in the island, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered a $450 million line of credit to Colombo, which includes $400 million for developing infrastructure and $50 million for anti-terrorism, media reports from India said on Friday. The move, announced during the new SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s maiden visit to India, is seen as a bid to outdo or reduce the influence of China in the strategically located island. In the meantime, New Delhi-based Hindustan Times reported that Gotabaya’s government wants to undo the previous regime’s move to lease the southern port of Hambantota to China. Rajapaksas were citing “national interest” as the reason, the paper said.
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Demand Tokyo Co-chairs, India to bring international mediation between Tamils and GoSL

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 November 2019, 19:59 GMT]
Unlike during the genocidal onslaught in 2009, the US and India are now more tightly intertwined in their foreign policy approach on the maritime affairs of the states in the Indian Ocean. There is a joint Indo-Pacific outlook, especially after the 2013 launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). There would be no different approaches or nuances between the two powers, as it was the case in the previous decade. The US and India, along with two other key partners in the region, Japan and Australia, would be acting en bloc. The Rajapaksa establishment is very well aware of this reality. It is time that Tamils muster their historic courage and articulate a joint demand for international mediation. It is also the time that the foreign actors who were pulling the wrong strings during the 2009 genocide and its aftermath now take account of their earlier practices.
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Russian naval vessel visiting Hambantota coincides with return of Gotabaya Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2019, 23:13 GMT]
The Sinhala Navy was enthusiastically arranging sporting and cultural events for the crew of Perekop, a naval training vessel of the Russian Baltic fleet, which docked at Hambantota port operated by China, a day after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in as the SL President. “India is likely to welcome this decision since it has been concerned over the use of the strategically located port by the Chinese Navy and has been desirous of Russia expanding its presence in the Indo-Pacific region to make it more inclusive,” observed Mumbai-based The Economic Times in a news report published on Friday.
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Indian FM visits Gotabaya to ensure Colombo’s conformity to US-India geopolitics in Indian Ocean

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 November 2019, 22:50 GMT]
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was quick to visit Colombo and meet the newly elected SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Tuesday evening. Jaishankar has been a key figure influencing the Indo-US geopolitical outlook in the recent times, and his unscheduled direct presence in Colombo inviting Mr Gotabaya to India at his earliest was nothing else than an indication that the USA is pulling strings. Informed diplomatic sources in Colombo said Gotabaya Rajapaksa was also well aware that India and the USA were tightly synchronised than ever before on defence and maritime affairs of the Indian Ocean.
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