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Sri Lanka's virus-battered tourism industry can reopen for foreign guests from August but under strict guidelines, including multiple coronavirus tests during their stay, officials said Saturday. Tourism was only just recovering from the effects of last year's Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, when the virus halted international travel to the island and forced hotels to shut, leaving tens of thousands of people jobless. Sri Lanka's tourism ministry said travellers will be able to visit from August 1, but they must carry a Covid-19 free certificate issued not earlier than 72 hours before boarding. Even with this document, tourists will have to take a virus test at the airport upon arrival. A further check will be done four to five days later -- and a third if staying for more than 10 days. "While this may be inconvenient it is essential to safeguard everybody and provide peace of mind," the ministry said. The regular visa fee of $40 has been increased to $100, visitors can only stay in hotels designated by the ministry, and are not allowed to use public transport on the island. In addition, only those who will spend a minimum of five days in Sri Lanka will be allowed in. The country has reported 11 deaths and 1,801 infections since its first coronavirus patient was identified on January 27. The number of visitors to Sri Lanka dropped to 1.91 million last year, down from 2.33 million in the previous year.

Sri Lanka is on the right track to contain the Covid-19 pandemic through increased tracking, testing, isolation, and treatment strategy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday. The WHO said that enhanced testing of the contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 has led to the increased identification of infections, reports Xinhua news agency. The organisation added that the containment of Covid-19 is feasible and remains the top priority in the country. The Sri Lanka Preparedness and Response Plan are implemented with the overall goal to interrupt the transmission of the virus from one person to another using a comprehensive blended approach of containment and mitigation, it added. “Moreover, the safety of frontline workers, both health and non-health, should be prioritised, and the availability of personal protective equipment must be ensured. Local innovations have eased the stress for some of these, however, adequate stocks need to be ensured in the event of a spike of cases,” the WHO said. On May 5, WHO handed over a donation of essential laboratory equipment, hospital equipment, personal protective equipment, and consumables to the Sri Lankan government to address the Covid-19 crisis.

The Sri Lankan government aims at total relaxation of the curfew restrictions imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic by June, a minister has said. The minister said that the government was targeting the total lifting of all restrictions by early June depending on the progress after May 11 when it will partially relax few curbs, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper. Basic guidelines were now being worked out for people to follow when carrying out their routine activities, despite the pandemic, once such the restrictions were lifted partially on May 11. The government imposed curfew restrictions in March after the corona cases escalated. The first Sri Lankan national infected with the disease was  reported on March 11. As of Saturday, there were 835 Covid-19 cases in the country, with nine deaths. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has express optimism that the economy adversely affected by the Covid–19 pandemic could be rebuilt on a solid basis, the President’s Media Division (PMD) has said. The Presidential Task Force in charge of the Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication has been entrusted with the responsibility of formulating a new economic model to achieve this objective, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported citing the PMD as saying. The president expressed these views during a meeting with the members of the newly-appointed Task Force held at the Presidential Secretariat to discuss modalities relating to the resumption of  civilian life and work from May 11. “Apparel and tourism sectors which make a huge contribution to the national economy should be revitalised to suit the  changing situations,” he said. Rajapaksa was also of the view that new opportunities were now open to attract tourists from countries where the  pandemic had subdued. While members of the Task Force were told to pay attention to promote domestic tourism so that the local hotel industry could be saved from collapse, the president also pointed out the possibility of attracting more foreign investors to invest in the Port City and the Industrial Zone in Hambantota. Basil Rajapaksa, head of the Task Force, said that it will support new businesses and extend the fullest cooperation to already existing large, medium and small scale enterprises.

Sri Lankan Police said yesterday that over 46,000 people had been arrested from across the country for violating a curfew in several districts which has been in place since March 20. In a statement, the police said 46,284 people have been arrested for loitering on the roads, gathering and consuming alcohol at public grounds, travelling by vehicle on the roads, keeping restaurants open, behaving in an unruly manner on the roads while intoxicated and engaging in trading, defying curfew rules. More than 12,000 vehicles have also been seized since March 20 and all those arrested have been or will be produced before local courts in the  coming days. Sri Lanka imposed a nationwide curfew on March 20, which was lifted in some districts due to a less threat of the spread of the virus. In capital Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara, in the outskirts and the central highlands of Kandy, the curfew has been imposed indefinitely since March 24, as these areas have been declared “high risk” areas from the coronavirus. Of the 548 active coronavirus cases in Sri Lanka, 327 of them were Navy personnel and authorities have also quarantined 1,008 of their relatives, officials said yesterday. The virus has killed eight people with 752 positive cases in the island nation. Army chief General Shavendra Silva, who heads Sri Lanks’s Covid-19 prevention mechanism, yesterday said, “There were 33 new positive cases found at midnight (Monday), 31 of them are our gallant sailors who are linked to the Welisara camp. The two others are their  contacts.” The Covid-19 infection is suspected to have spread in the Welisara Camp near capital Colombo when officers came in contact with drug addicts infected  by the virus during a raid. The sailors had gone home on leave, spreading the virus  further. Silva said 752 positive cases were reported in the country since its first positive case in mid-March, of which 194 patients had been discharged from hospitals after complete  recovery. The army chief said 1,008 relatives of Navy sailors are  presently in quarantine. The virus death rose to eight on Monday after a 72-year-old woman in northwestern Kurunegala region died of the  disease. The woman was related to one of the infected sailors. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday spoke at an online summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a forum of around 120 developing countries. Gotabaya said of all the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests only 3% gave positive results and that the virus’ mortality rate in Sri Lanka was less than 1%. The president said he intends to ease restriction to revive economic activities, while enforcing health guidelines.

Twenty-nine Sri Lankan Navy personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 taking the overall number of infections in the island-nation to 368 in the country, an army official said yesterday. Army Commander Shavendra Silva said that the 29 Navy personnel have contracted the virus during the recent search operation carried out in Suduwella, Ja-Ela to find out suspected Covid-19 patients, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper. Accordingly, the Army Commander said the Navy Camp at Welisara has been declared as an isolated area. He requested all sailors who went on leave after quarantine duty, to report back immediately to undergo PCR tests. As of yesterday, Sri Lanka has also reported seven Covid-19 deaths. Meanwhile, the National Association for Professionals in Tourism (NAFPT) said it had launched a four-day campaign in several areas of the island-nation to assist foreign tourists who are currently stranded due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In a statement, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said the NAFPT had launched the campaign titled “Tourism Disaster Monitoring and Hosting Programme” along with the Tourist Police Division where tourism officials will visit the foreign tourists, providing them with dry ration gift packages, familiarising the current situation and identifying the difficulties they are facing and providing assistance, reports Xinhua news agency. The officials will travel across the country for the next four days covering the capital Colombo, Katunayake, Negombo, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Pasikuda, Arugambay, Udawalawe, Mirissa, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa, and Bentota, which are tourists hotspots in the island country. Sri Lanka shut its international airports last month for all passenger arrivals to prevent a further spread of the Covid-19 but said passenger departures would continue.

Sri Lanka’s navy has seized $65mn worth of crystal methamphetamine and ketamine in the country’s biggest drugs bust, officials said yesterday.  Acting on a tip-off, authorities raided a flagless vessel in the country’s southern waters and arrested nine Pakistani men suspected of smuggling the drugs. Navy personnel, wearing special protective clothing in case the suspects had Covid-19, found 605kg of crystal meth, also known as ice, and 579kg of ketamine, said Navy  Commander Piyal de Silva. “This is the first time we have found ketamine and it is likely that the smugglers were trying to take this cargo to some East Asian destination,” de Silva told reporters in the capital Colombo. Sri Lanka’s defence ministry said the drugs had an estimated street value in Colombo of about Rs12,500mn ($65mn), making it the country’s biggest single  seizure of drugs. Last month, the navy seized two foreign trawlers carrying more than $33mn worth of  heroin and ice. Authorities said initial investigations suggested the Iran-Pakistan coast was the point  of origin. Meanwhile, a curfew currently in force in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutura, Puttalam, Kandy and Jaffna will continue until further notice, the President’s Media Division said, IANS reports. In all other districts, curfew which was re-imposed on Monday afternoon continued till yesterday. The villages of Atalugama in the Kalutara district and Akurana in Kandy have been declared completely isolated areas. No one is allowed to enter or leave from these two villages  until further notice.

As Sri Lanka resorts to desperate measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many people are struggling to cope up with long hours of curfew after police banned even casual gatherings among neighbours. TV stations are showing popular films, and Internet service providers are offering low-cost packages to let people browse the Internet and check their social media in order to stay  occupied during the curfew. But even so, according to Deputy Inspector General of Police Ajith Rohana, as many as 2,000 people have been arrested for violating the curfew, and 500 vehicles were seized while being used at those times. “We have instructed the police not to allow people to have gatherings, even meeting up with neighbours. Persons will be arrested for violating the  instructions,” Rohana said. A 60-hour curfew was lifted on Monday morning in 17 of the country’s 25 districts in order to allow people to buy food, but it has since been reimposed, and in some districts extended up to 140 hours. The people worst affected by the curfews have been daily wage earners, mainly in the country’s capital, where people depend on work at the port, airport, markets and by operating taxi services. Many in Colombo believe that the curfew was too long, as it was affecting their sources of income. “I am a taxi driver and depend on the income from the daily hires I gain. I have been one of those severely affected by the curfew,” said Jameel Abdeen of Colombo. In the capital district, the curfew imposed on Friday evening was further extended for 24 hours and was re-imposed yesterday. “The curfew is also having an adverse effect in some houses, as the number of cases of domestic violence is on the increase,” said Pushpa Ramyani Desoysa, a chief nurse at the National Hospital in Colombo. The number of people admitted over injuries due to domestic violence, where men have beaten up their wives, are on the rise, she said. Yet while there were mixed reactions about the stringent measures, which include not only the long curfew hours but also restrictions on travel between districts, the majority of people believe that strict controls are necessary to control the spread of the coronavirus. “The long hours of curfew may cause inconvenience, but have been helpful to slow the spread of the virus and thereby avoid situations experienced in some of the foreign countries,” said Priyankara Jayasinghe, a resident in the northwestern part of the country. He said that in his district, where thousands of family members work or live in Italy, most welcomed the curfew and cooperated with police to enforce it. Strict quarantine procedures are also among the string of measures taken to control the spread of the virus. The army is maintaining the majority of 45 quarantine centres, where 3,458 people have been placed in isolation for 14 days. Most of them have returned from overseas, including those who were working in South Korea and Italy. Considering that Sri Lanka has seen a comparatively low 96 confirmed cases so far and zero deaths, are such strict measures necessary? Health authorities say that they are not taking chances. “The situation may change soon,” warns Dr Anil Jasinghe, director general, health services.

Sri Lanka yesterday banned all passenger flights and ships from entering the country, a further attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the president’s office said. “The ban will not be altered for any circumstance,” read a statement from the president’s office. Sri Lanka has been permitting airlines to operate outgoing flights, enabling tourists to leave the country, also allowing them to use the airport as a transit point. Passenger ships have also been allowed to enter the country without disembarking at the port. Currently around 30,000 tourists are in the country. The moves came as Sri Lanka stepped up measures to prevent the spread of the virus after  declaring a curfew. A 60-hour-long curfew imposed on Friday evening and due to end early on Monday has been extended in three of the country’s 25 districts, until tomorrow morning. The three districts include the capital Colombo and two adjoining districts, where 50 of 78 coronavirus patients have been found. “We had only two more cases of coronavirus cases on Saturday and thereby increasing the number to 78, but we are not relaxing the preventive measures”, Director General of Health  Services Anil Jasinghe said. Police yesterday said some 340 people have been arrested for defying a curfew imposed by the government in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The arrests were made between 6am on March 20 and 9am yesterday, reports the Daily Financial Times newspaper. Among the arrested, some had engaged in sports in public playgrounds, kept their shops open, while others were found drunk on the streets, according to the Police Media Division. Legal action will be taken against the violators, it added. On Saturday, a prisoner died and three others were injured when fighting broke out in a jail over rumours of coronavirus. In Anuradhapura prison, scene of frequent protests against ill-treatment in recent years, inmates fought staff, fearing that the virus had entered the jail. “Contrary to rumours floating around, no one has tested positive at the Anuradhapura prison,” said lawmaker Namal Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka's new president is set to dissolve parliament shortly and call snap a legislative election six months ahead of schedule, a state-run newspaper said Sunday. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to exercise his constitutional power to sack the assembly when it completes four-and-a-half out of its five-year term on Sunday night, the Sunday Observer said. Rajapaksa, 70, won a landslide at November presidential polls and appointed his older brother and former president Mahinda as prime minister in a move that saw the family consolidate their hold on power. "The Gazette Extraordinary will be issued announcing the dissolution of the present parliament at the end of the completion of four-and-a-half years in terms of the provisions of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution," the Observer said quoting its sources at Rajapaksa's office. Official sources told AFP that a general election was most likely in the final week of April if the 225-member national assembly is dissolved by Monday as widely expected. Mahinda, who had been president twice and prime minister thrice, is expected to lead the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP, or People's Front) party to a comfortable victory. Political commentators have said it would be a formidable challenge for the opposition to prevent Rajapaksa securing a two-thirds majority which will allow him sweeping powers to govern the nation of 21 million people. The United National Party (UNP) of former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been plagued by a debilitating internal power struggle. The Rajapaksas are adored by the Sinhala-Buddhist majority -- but loathed among minority Tamils -- for spearheading the defeat of separatist militants in 2009 to end the island's 37-year ethnic war. Prime Minister Rajapaksa announced last month that the country was withdrawing from a UN resolution investigating alleged war crimes in 2009, a move that was seen as boosting his popularity with the Sinhalese majority. Mahinda was president when Sri Lankan troops defeated Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009, but rights groups accused the army of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the conflict, a charge Colombo has denied.

Sri Lanka has ordered a probe into allegations of bribery by European planemaker Airbus over the sale of aircraft to state-run carrier SriLankan Airlines, after Airbus agreed to settle a corruption probe with regulators. The Indian Ocean nation was among the countries whose officials were mentioned as having allegedly received bribes in Airbus’s $4bn settlement with European and US authorities. According to disclosures in courts in Washington, Paris and London, Airbus for years conducted a “massive scheme to offer and pay bribes” involving very senior executives in 16 countries including Sri Lanka’s ailing flag carrier. Sri Lanka will conduct “a comprehensive investigation into reports of allegations over financial irregularities”, the office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a statement on Sunday. Detailed findings from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said Airbus had hired the wife of a SriLankan Airlines executive as its intermediary and misled UK export credit agency UKEF over her name and gender, while paying $2mn to her company. Yesterday, a senior official at SriLankan Airlines said a Colombo court had issued orders to arrest the former chief executive officer of the airline, Kapila Chandrasena, and his wife Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayake as suspects of money laundering. Reuters was unable to reach Chandrasena and his wife as their mobile phones were switched off. A court source confirmed the issue of the arrest warrants. In a statement on Sunday, SriLankan Airlines said its chairman and board had directed the management to co-operate fully with any government agency regarding any  investigation or prosecution. The board has also told management to “preserve and study all available internal documentation with a view to take all possible corrective future action,” it added. The alleged corruption in dealings between Airbus and SriLankan Airlines took place between July 2011 and June 2015, the SFO added. In 2017, Sri Lanka paid $98mn in penalties for cancelling the order in 2016 and returning four A350 ‘extra wide-body’ aircraft that is specifically designed for long haul routes and unsuitable for the airline’s business model. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International Sri Lanka director Asoka Obeyesekere said that the fallout from the A350 deal was widely reported to have cost the country in excess of $94mn in cancellation penalties, called for action both internationally and locally to ensure that Airbus and its agents were held accountable for losses inflicted on the island nation. Saturday’s announcement of the Airbus settlement followed a nearly four-year investigation spanning sales to more than a dozen overseas markets. Ghana said late Sunday it was also opening an investigation into alleged bribery over an  Airbus plane deal.

A Chinese national arrested for attempting to smuggle live scorpions from Sri Lanka back home, presumably to extract their venom, has been fined and released, Customs officials said Wednesday. The 30-year-old Chinese citizen concealed 200 scorpions in his travel bag, but was detected on Monday when he was ordered to send his baggage through a scanning machine in customs.  "The man claimed he was taking them to be sold as ornamental animals, but we believe it was to extract the venom needed for medical purposes", Customs spokesman Sunil Jayaratna said. The man, who arrived in Sri Lanka on a tourist visa, had travelled to various villages in the country and collected the scorpions with the help of locals.  "The man appears to have experience in smuggling such animals as he had concealed them in a specially prepared compartment in his bag with wet tissues," the official said. The Chinese national was fined 100,000 rupees (552 dollars). He paid the fine and has left the country. Permission is required to export scorpions, any animal or specimens of plants. Anyone doing so needs to make a detailed declaration of the purpose. Sri Lankan officials have in the past stopped foreigners trying to smuggle out butterflies, insects, tortoises, other animals and plants.

A Sri Lankan air force plane crashed in a tea-growing mountainous region yesterday, killing the four crew on board, a military official said. The Chinese-built Y-12 had taken off from the southern airbase of Wirawila and was heading to Ratmalana, south of Colombo, when it crashed, spokesman Chandana  Wickramasinghe said. “We are still investigating the cause of the crash,” Wickramasinghe said, adding that all four officers on the plane were killed in the crash at Haputale, 200km (125 miles) east of Colombo. It was the worst air crash in Sri Lanka since an AN-32 military transport plane came down just outside the capital in December 2014 killing all five crew onboard.

Sri Lanka all-rounder Thisara Perera, has joined the Sri Lanka Army as a Major. The 30-year-old cricketer confirmed the news via Twitter and said that he accepted an invitation of Army Commander Lt General Shavendra Silva. “I accepted the invitation of Lt General Shavendra Silva in the first place & joined the army. Getting an invitation from someone like him was one of the biggest achievements of my life. Thank you Sir! I look forward to contributing my best to army cricket,” Perera had tweeted.  According to a report in Colombo Gazette, Perera has been enlisted to the Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force as a Major in the Gajaba Regiment. Former captain Dinesh Chandimal had also joined the Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force earlier this year to play for the army cricket team.  The 30-year-old has represented Sri Lanka in six Tests, 161 ODIs and 79 T20Is in which he has scored 203, 2210 and 1169 runs respectively. Besides, he has taken 11, 171 and 51 wickets in the three formats.  Sri Lanka are scheduled to play a three-match T20I series in India beginning January 5 in Guwahati.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is slated to make his inaugural address to parliament on January 3 during a ceremonial sitting before the new session commences later that day. He is the first Sri Lankan president to be elected to office without having served as a member of parliament prior to his election in the November 16 polls, the Daily Financial Times reported yesterday. The new session will commence ending the prorogation of parliament which took place on December 2. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Parliament Secretary General Dhammika Dasanayaka will welcome the president when he arrives for the ceremonial sitting of the Legislature which will be followed by hoisting of the national flag. This will be followed by the 21-gun salute. The president will chair the inaugural session which will commence at 10am where he will deliver the statement of the new government’s policy and will suspend the House thereafter. The first-ever session of the Sri Lankan Parliament was held on October 14, 1947. It was ceremonially opened and presided over by Governor Henry Monck-Mason Moore.  He delivered the throne speech, which was debated by parliament and passed by a vote of thanks. The third session of the second Parliament was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on April 12, 1954. With the enactment of the new Constitution in 1978, the government’s policy statement given by the president replaced the throne speech.

Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said the alleged kidnapping of a Swiss embassy staffer which triggered a diplomatic spat between Colombo and Bern had been concocted to discredit his election victory. A Sri Lankan national working for the Swiss mission in Colombo was arrested early this week for allegedly falsely claiming she had been abducted and sexually assaulted by unidentified attackers on November 25. The alleged abduction happened a day after a Sri Lankan police inspector investigating cases involving the Rajapaksa family sought asylum in Switzerland. Gotabaya Rajapaksa – who was elected president last month – told Colombo-based foreign correspondents on Thursday that he was the real “victim” of the saga. “In this case, the victim is me because immediately after my election, this story came up,” he said, giving details of the Swiss embassy staffer’s movements on the day she claimed she was held against her will. “It is very clear it is a planned thing to discredit me and the government.” Rajapaksa said he did not believe the Swiss embassy itself had any role in making the allegations, and insisted he did not want anyone to create tensions between the two countries. Switzerland on Monday criticised the embassy worker’s arrest and “lack of due process in the case”, and asked for evidence that she had faked her claims. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis also spoke to his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena about the case on Wednesday, his ministry said. Cassis informed Gunawardena that Bern had sent an experienced diplomat, Jorg Frieden, to oversee the efforts to clarify the facts and resolve the situation, the foreign ministry said in a statement. During the conversation, Switzerland’s top diplomat also voiced deep concern over the arrested embassy employee’s health, and stressed that Sri Lankan authorities were “responsible” for her well-being, it said. Noting that the conditions in prison were not suitable for the woman, he suggested the authorities should transfer her to a hospital or a similar facility, the statement added.

The Maldives is seeking a “diplomatic” solution to restructure its Chinese debt as the small but strategically located atoll nation struggles with repayments, the foreign minister has said. Former strongman president Abdulla Yameen relied heavily on Beijing to provide financial support during his five year term and his successor’s party has accused China of a land grab in the country. Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid told reporters on Thursday that China was a generous donor, but the previous Maldivian government borrowed heavily without adequate provisioning for repayments. Speaking in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo he said the direct loans as well as government guarantees to state-owned enterprises on their loans from China amount to a debt of some $1.4bn.  This is a large burden he said for the nation of 340,000 people. “Borrowings by the previous government (of president Abdulla Yameen) were unreasonable and put us in difficulty,” Shahid said. “But, we can solve this mess through diplomatic means.” The pro-Beijing Yameen was jailed last month for five years and fined $5mn for corruption during his term that ended late last year. “We could have a debt restructuring in the future. I am in contact with the Chinese government and I am confident that we can reach a diplomatic understanding.” Shahid is visiting Sri Lanka for talks with Sri Lanka’s new leaders - President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Prime Minister brother Mahinda - who had also borrowed heavily from China during their previous term in office between 2005 and 2015. The former Sri Lankan government handed over control of the Hambantota port in the south of the island to a Chinese company on a 99-year lease in December 2017.  It said it was unable to service a $1.4bn debt from Beijing to build the loss-making  harbour.  The port was one of a string of infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and Europe being funded under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which critics say is saddling nations  with debt. The new president has publicly declared that he opposed handing over control over a strategic asset to China and said he wanted the deal renegotiated. He has not given details.

Sri Lanka's new president suspended parliament for a month from Tuesday ahead of snap elections he wants to call in March to consolidate his sweeping victory. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, elected president last month in a landslide, issued a proclamation overnight proroguing the legislature and said a new session will begin from January 3. Rajapaksa, 70, is hoping to ride a wave of popularity by calling an election six months before the current parliament's five-year term expires in August. He has already ordered major tax cuts in a bid to boost an economy still struggling after deadly Easter Sunday suicide bombings that crippled the country's booming tourism sector. A 15-percent value-added tax was cut to eight percent, while another two-percent goods and services tax was abolished from this month. The construction industry -- which has slumped hard this year -- also saw its corporate tax burden cut from 28 to 14 percent. The official announcement of calling a fresh session of the legislature will give the minority government of Rajapaksa more control over parliamentary oversight committees. Rajapaksa is the younger brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa, president from 2005-15 when Gotabaya effectively ran the security forces. Together they spearheaded the end of Sri Lanka's civil war with Tamil separatists in 2009 when an estimated 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by the military.

Sri Lanka’s new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has warned India and Western nations that his country will be forced to seek finance from China again if they do not invest in the island. Rajapaksa told the Hindu newspaper in an interview published yesterday that other Asian nations would also turn to China’s giant Belt and Road infrastructure project without  alternative help. Sri Lanka has traditionally been allied to India but became close to China, securing about $7bn in loans and investment, when Rajapaksa’s brother Mahinda was president from 2005 to 2015. “I want to tell India, Japan, Singapore and Australia and other countries to also come and invest in us,” said the president, who was in India this weekend on his first foreign trip since winning a presidential election on November 16. “They should tell their companies to invest in Sri Lanka and help us grow, because if they do not, then not only Sri Lanka, but countries all over Asia will have the same (problem). “The Chinese will take the Belt and Road initiative all over unless other countries provide an alternative.” India has been at the forefront of nations wary of Belt and Road, fearing it will reinforce China’s military and strategic clout in the Indian Ocean region that New Delhi considers its  backyard. China has allotted hundreds of billions of dollars on the network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks spanning Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. India’s foreign and defence ministers held talks with counterparts from Japan on Saturday in a bid to step up military co-operation. Gotabaya Rajapaksa also confirmed that he wants to renegotiate the agreement with China about the strategic Hambantota port south of Colombo that serves the key shipping lanes between  Europe and Asia. “I believe that the Sri Lankan government must have control of all strategically important projects like Hambantota,” he said in the interview.  “The next generation will curse our generation for giving away precious assets otherwise,” he said.  Sri Lanka was forced to hand the port over to China in 2017 on a 99-year lease after the Sri Lankan government was unable to repay loans taken to build it.  India and some Western countries have raised concerns that nations who have taken Chinese loans under the Belt and Road initiative risk falling into a debt trap. Rajapaksa said he was certain India’s government under right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi would move past the apprehensions it had over ties between Sri Lanka and China.  “Some of their suspicions were due to our ties with China, but that was a misunderstanding. We had a purely commercial agreement with China,” Rajapaksa said.

India yesterday announced lines of credit amounting to $450mn to Sri Lanka as its newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ways to push the bilateral relations and undertake developmental activities jointly in the island nation, including those benefiting ethnic Tamils. Rajapaksa, who took over as the Sri Lankan President on November 18, has chosen India as the first country of his foreign visit, accepting an invitation extended by Modi soon after his election. The Indian prime minister had sent External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Colombo on November 19 to personally hand over the invitation. Modi and Rajapaksa held detailed talks yesterday, covering various aspects of bilateral relations and the reconciliation process underway in Sri Lanka, keeping in mind the interests of ethnic Tamils. Addressing the media jointly with Rajapaksa after their meeting at Hyderabad House, the prime minister underlined India’s neighbourhood-first policy and said the Sri Lankan president’s visit will boost the age-old ties between the two countries. He assured Rajapaksa that India is with Sri Lanka in its fight against terrorism and announced a line of credit of $50mn to the island nation for the purpose. Modi announced another line of credit of $400mn to help strengthen Sri Lanka’s economy. He noted that India is already undertaking a project to build houses for ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka. “Under Indian housing project, 46,000 houses have already been built in Sri Lanka and 14,000 more are being constructed for Tamil origin people,” Modi said. “We exchanged our views on reconciliation in Sri Lanka. President Rajapaksa told me about his inclusive political point of view on ethnic harmony... I hope and believe the Sri Lankan government will take forward procedure of reconciliation to fulfil ambitions of equality, justice, peace and respect for Tamil citizens of the country,” the prime minister said. The process of reconciliation includes implementation of 13th Amendment, Modi added. On the occasion, Rajapaksa said the Indian boats seized by Sri Lankan forces will be released. Rajapaksa arrived in New Delhi on Thursday. He is in India for a three-day official visit to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties in key areas. Rajapaksa is accompanied by a delegation, which includes his country’s Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha and Treasury Secretary S R Attygalle.

Sri Lanka’s new president said yesterday that he will call a snap parliamentary election in March following his sweeping victory at the weekend. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is hoping to ride a wave of popularity by calling an election six months before the current parliament’s five-year term expires on March 1. “I will consult the people at the earliest opportunity I get under the constitution,” he said, after swearing-in a new cabinet headed by his brother Mahinda, a former president who will now serve as premier and finance minister. The brothers are credited with brutally defeating Tamil separatist militants in 2009 to end Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, making them adored among the majority Sinhalese-Buddhist majority. For the same reason they are feared by many Tamils, and also among the Muslim minority who have seen increased hostility since Islamist extremist attacks killed 269 people in April. Currently the Rajapaksas and their allies have just 96 lawmakers in the 225-seat parliament, making it hard for them to pass legislation.  The opposition of outgoing premier Ranil Wickremesinghe is also six MPs short of a majority. The new 16-member cabinet also includes another Rajapaksa brother, Chamal, who was made minister of agriculture and irrigation in addition to trade. Foreign affairs was given to Dinsesh Gunawardena, 70, a leader of a small Sinhala nationalist party in coalition with the ruling party. The only female in the cabinet, Pavitra Wanniarachchi, will take on women’s affairs and health. Nobody was named to the defence or law and order portfolios.  The International Monetary Fund said earlier this month that Sri Lanka’s economy was slowly recovering from the devastating effects of the April 21 attacks.  But the international credit rating agency Fitch warned on Thursday that the new president’s pledges to increase social spending, public-sector wages and pensions could damage Sri Lanka’s public finances.  During Mahinda’s 2005-15 presidency, Sri Lanka borrowed almost $7bn from China for infrastructure projects – many of which turned into white elephants mired in corruption – pushing up Sri Lanka’s debts. In a possible sign that he intends to avoid a repeat of Sri Lanka’s strategic drift towards Beijing under his brother, Gotabaya’s first official trip abroad will be to India next week.