President Ranil Wickremesinghe told the Indian Ocean Security Conference in Colombo that the sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine had not caused the collapse of the Russian economy, which had just shifted eastwards. The following is the text of the statement issued at the conference (Phase II) organised by the Pathfinder Foundation: […]

In a welcome development in relation to Sri Lanka’s regional policy, some state functionaries of the Ranil Wickremesinghe regime have gone on record as having stated that Sri Lanka would be taking notable cognizance of India’s security concerns, going forward. This is as it should be. None of India’s immediate neighbours could afford to overlook […]

In the global political landscape of 2024, Reuters provides a comprehensive overview of key elections shaping the economic and geopolitical landscape across diverse regions. From Europe, where the rise of Eurosceptic far-right parties poses challenges to the European Union’s integration, to Russia, where Vladimir Putin is set for another term amid heightened tensions with the […]

[An article based on the Keynote Address delivered by Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, recently at the Annual Research Symposium 2023 of the University of Colombo] Introduction Inflation affects every aspect of our lives; it is a force that shapes our purchasing power, influences our financial decisions, and […]

The convocation of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, Colombo, (BCIS) for 2023, held at the BMICH on November 10, provided many a thought-provoking ‘take-away’ for the International Relations (IR) student and analyst. The principal dignitaries at the momentous event did considerable justice to current developments in the IR field and thereby rendered the convocation […]

Oil prices have jumped on concerns that the situation in Israel and Gaza could disrupt output from the Middle East. Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed by $2.25 a barrel to $86.83, while US prices also rose. Israel and Palestinian territories are not oil producers but the Middle Eastern region accounts for almost a third […]

A gathering of BIMSTEC member states in Thailand currently could not have come at a better time, considering the rising economic needs of the South and South-East Asian regions in particular and those of the global South in general. The economic pressures at present being generated by the Ukrainian conflict, for example, help highlight the […]

By DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA For a country with a deep crisis, galloping poverty and a very significant Left (JVP-NPP and FSP), there is a paradoxically thin contribution by the leftwing intelligentsia. This can be contrasted by a cursory glance at the volumes of back issues of the Lanka Guardian which would illustrate the far thicker […]

By Y P Prakash The growth of regional industries is crucial for India to realize its ambitions of becoming a global manufacturing hub, and India’s potential in this regard is undeniable. The International Monetary Fund predicts that India’s GDP will grow by 6.1% in 2023, surpassing China’s projected growth of 4.4%. Furthermore, India is expected […]

Having lost out to China considerably in its efforts to expand its influence in the global South and the ASEAN region, the West is giving every indication of making-up for lost time. While the US is in a stepped-up drive to cultivate the African continent, the EU is intensifying efforts to strengthen its economic ties […]

By Stella Yifan Xie HONG KONG—The sharp slowdown in China’s growth in the past year is prompting many experts to reconsider when China will surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest economy—or even if it ever will. Until recently, many economists assumed China’s gross domestic product measured in U.S. dollars would surpass that of the […]

by Dayan Jayatilleka, PhD Watching Mikhail Gorbachev who died last week at the World Festival of Youth and Students in the Summer of 1985, I had a thought which I later recorded in an article in the Sri Lankan newspapers. I felt, and wrote, that “at last we have a Soviet leader we do not […]