News
Ambassador Kohona thanks China for coming to Lanka’s rescue with generous assistance
Sri Lanka Ambassador to China Dr. Palitha Kohona attended the opening of the China-South Asia Emergency Supplies Reserve in Chengdu on July 9.
The Lankan Embassy in Beijing said: The emergency reserve was the result of a Zoom meeting convened by Foreign Minister Wang Yi in April and attended by the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Given the regularity with which natural disasters seem to afflict the South Asian region, the creation of the emergency reserve would enable the reserve to dispatch emergency supplies with the least delay. Today the mobilisation of emergency supplies takes too long.
Vice Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao, a former Ambassador to Colombo, presided over the ceremony. The Vice Governor of Sichuan and the Mayor of Chengdu attended the event.
Ambassador Dr. Kohona in his remarks said that South Asia suffered regularly from natural calamities and the emergency reserve would be a great response mechanism and an asset. With climate change increasingly causing climate related emergencies with unpredictable and unusual weather, the creation of the emergency reserve was timely.
President Xi Jinping has committed China to be carbon neutral by 2060 and was leading the world’s response to climate change by example. China was an example to the world. The leadership provided by the Communist Party of China was exemplary.
Ambassador Dr. Kohona thanked China for coming to Sri Lanka’s assistance generously with vaccines when the COVID-19 situation was threatening to slip out of control. He also said that Sri Lanka had a well-mobilised public healthcare sector which bore the brunt of the national COVID-19 response. It was a resource that Sri Lanka would be able to share with the world when the pandemic comes under adequate control in Sri Lanka.
It has been reported that former Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne has been found dead at his residence in Athurugiriya this morning (17)
it is suspected that he may have taken his own life.
A heated argument broke out between Jaffna District MP Archchuna Ramanathan and Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar during the Kilinochchi District Coordination Committee meeting held yesterday (16).
A video footage of the incident shows the MP and the Minister engaging in a heated verbal exchange, following which a physical confrontation appeared to develop when the Minister attempted to grab files reportedly in the possession of MP Ramanathan.
“If you lay a hand on me, I’ll lay a hand on you too… got it?” Ramanathan is heard telling the Minister during the exchange.
Police and officials present at the meeting intervened to prevent the situation from escalating further.
The circumstances that led to the confrontation were not immediately clear.
Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has filed an intervening petition before the Court of Appeal in connection with a petition filed by former head of the State Intelligence Service, Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay, challenging his arrest and detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act over investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
The Cardinal has sought permission from the court to make submissions in relation to Sallay’s petition and requested that it be dismissed.
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