Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Sri Lanka, where he will hold talks with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and strengthen ties through agreements on defence, energy security, and digitalisation. This visit aims to further bolster the already strong relationship between the two nations and is expected to include several outcomes, including a defence cooperation agreement, debt restructuring, and a currency swap. This visit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is recovering from an economic crisis, where India played a significant role in providing financial assistance.
Sri Lankan police searched a flight arriving in Colombo from Chennai after receiving a tip that a suspect linked to the Pahalgam terror attack could be on board. The search was conducted in coordination with local authorities following an alert from the Chennai Area Control Centre. The aircraft was thoroughly inspected and cleared for further operations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sri Lanka is expected to yield at least 10 ambitious outcomes, including a defense cooperation agreement and frameworks for deeper engagement in the energy sector. The visit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is recovering from an economic crisis, with India providing significant financial assistance. Modi and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will also dedicate several projects built with India's assistance and virtually inaugurate the Sampur solar energy project.
India's concerns over a planned naval exercise between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the strategically important waters of Trincomalee led to the shelving of the drills weeks ago. The exercise was planned as part of regular engagements between the two navies, but India expressed its apprehensions to the Sri Lankan government. Trincomalee, situated on Sri Lanka's northeastern coast, is considered a significant hub in the Indian Ocean region, particularly for India's maritime security interests. The Pakistani Navy's close cooperation with China's PLA Navy has raised concerns in New Delhi about any Pakistani warship presence in Trincomalee. This incident follows previous diplomatic rows between India and Sri Lanka over the docking of Chinese vessels at Sri Lankan ports. India has been actively supporting Sri Lanka's development of Trincomalee's energy infrastructure and has recently signed a defense pact with the country to boost military cooperation.
'Granting the country's highest civilian honour to Prime Minister Modi was surprising as it indicated the government was going out of its way to have India as a close partner.'
'These efforts by Beijing can be weaponised one day with economic, security and political implications for India.'
After uncovering attempts of Tamil Tigers to build crude submarines, Sri Lankan forces on Thursday said they had unearthed a possible rebel aircraft research wing that apparently studied ways to either repair planes or construct new ones.
Notwithstanding pressure from Tamil political parties, government has no immediate plan to stop training Sri Lankan military personnel in India but joint exercises are expected to be put on hold for the time-being.
During the visit, he will be presiding over the Passing Out Parade of the Spring Term 23 at Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala, he said.
After stepping up attacks on the Union government over India's participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka last month, chorus is mounting in Tamil Nadu among opposition parties over the country's offer to train Sri Lankan Naval personnel.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday expressed regret over an objectionable article on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa posted on the Defence Ministry website that triggered a furore in India.
The Indian Navy rescued an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel with 19 Pakistani crew members and a Sri Lankan trawler in two swift operations after armed pirates hijacked the boats in the Arabian Sea amid deteriorating security situation arising out of Iran-backed Houthi rebels targeting various cargo ships in the region.
Jayalalithaa-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Centre, charging it with 'insulting' Tamils by imparting military training to Sri Lankan defence personnel.
'This was a decision taken and executed by Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief Pottu Amman. Both were convinced that the assassination would not be linked to them.'
India thrash Sri Lanka 8-0 in SAFF U19 C'ship opener
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on Gota's flight in the middle of the night.
India has reached out to Denmark and other non-permanent members of the UN Security Council to apprise them of the Pahalgam terror attack and its cross-border linkages. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has spoken to his counterparts from several nations, conveying India's resolve to bring the perpetrators to justice. The outreach comes as India mulls options for responding to the attack, with Prime Minister Modi assuring the harshest response for the "perpetrators and conspirators." India has also received condolences and condemnations from world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.
A high-tech Chinese research ship docked at the strategically important Hambantota port departed from Sri Lankan waters on Monday after a controversial six-day visit.
Expressing dismay over reports of Indian Coast Guard participating in naval exercises with Sri Lankan Navy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to recall the two ships and Coast Guard personnel participating in the event in the island nation.
On the night of July 5, the Tigers launched their first kamikaze operation. Miller took the wheels of the explosive-packed truck, smiled at everyone as he turned the ignition key and drove it slowly towards the Sri Lankan military camp. A few moments later all of Jaffna heard a thunderous explosion that brought the complex crashing down in clouds of dust. Miller had given birth to a deadly tactic that Prabhakaran would employ time and again with devastating consequences to Sri Lanka -- and India. A fascinating excerpt from M R Narayan Swamy's must read new book, The Rout Of Prabhakaran.
Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, who was lynched by a mob in Pakistan's Punjab province over allegations of blasphemy last week, was buried according to Buddhist and Catholic rites at Ganemulla, a suburb north of Colombo, on Wednesday.
Seven-time champions India were held to a goalless draw by 205th ranked Sri Lanka despite a dominant display in their second SAFF Championships match, in Male, on Thursday.
There are apprehensions about the possibility of the vessel's tracking systems attempting to snoop on Indian installations while being on its way to the Sri Lankan port.
Virat Kohli anchored a tricky chase with an unbeaten 100.
A Sri Lankan court on Friday named former president Maithripala Sirisena as a suspect in the 2019 Easter bombings in which 270 people, including 11 Indians, were killed.
As Prabhakaran was leaving his house, Rajiv Gandhi called his son Rahul and asked him to fetch his (Gandhi's) bulletproof jacket. He put the jacket on Prabhakaran's back and remarked with his usual charming smile: "Take care of yourself."
Sri Lanka's main Opposition parties on Sunday agreed to form an all-party interim government after the anticipated resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday, following unprecedented political turmoil that forced him and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to offer their resignations over the mishandling of the nation's crippling economic crisis.
'We have to keep a watch because India-Sri Lanka has a history that whenever there has been a change in government, either the connectivity projects have been questioned or cancelled or revived.'
It was Prime Minister Modi's first such virtual bilateral engagement with a leader of a neighbouring country. For Rajapaksa, it was the first diplomatic engagement with a leader of a foreign country after he was sworn in as prime minister.
This is the magic of Sircar's filmmaking -- National Award winners, many of them -- that makes every new work of his an eagerly-awaited affair.
Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday met Defence Minister A K Antony in New Delhi. Rajapaksa and his Indian counterpart Shashikant Sharma had discussed increasing the frequency of joint exercises, training of Lankan officers in Indian institutes, supply of non-lethal defence equipment and other issues.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is currently facing public demand for his resignation over his mishandling of the economic crisis, is the man who ruthlessly ended Sri Lanka's nearly 30-year civil war with the LTTE with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.
Sri Lanka has decided to impose a one-year moratorium in allowing foreign vessels to conduct research in the island nation's territorial waters, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has said, amidst frequent docking requests from Chinese surveillance ships.
Images from the 1st ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Colombo on Friday.
Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka, who presided over the military offensive on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has been asked by the United States authorities to testify before them against Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse over allegations of widespread human rights abuse during the war.
Faced with growing anti-Sri Lankan sentiments in Tamil Nadu, Colombo may shift its deputy high commission office out of Chennai, a media report said Sunday.
The off-spin wizard said that the initial perception about spinners being cannon fodder in the shortest format has proved to be a myth.
Sri Lanka on Friday released 136 Indian fishermen who were apprehended for allegedly poaching in its waters, a day after India conveyed its deep concern over their detention and sought their release.
Accusing the Centre of showing 'excessive enthusiasm' in training Lankan defence personnel, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday said it has "mischievously concealed" the training being given to two Lankan officers in Tamil Nadu since May and demanded that they be sent back.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu today raised the pitch against the government imparting training to Sri Lankan military personnel with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa terming the move as "callous and adamant" and UPA ally DMK asking the Centre not to hurt Tamil sentiments.
