Features

Fresh, welcome accent on regional cooperation

Published

5 years ago

2022/03/31

Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, who is on a three-day official visit to Sri Lanka, called on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Dr. Jaishankar is in Sri Lanka to attend the 5th BIMSTEC

Before Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Sri Lanka a couple of days ago to participate in the BIMSTEC Summit, he paid a visit to the Maldives where he finalized a range of India-Maldives bilateral cooperation agreements. This was a fresh underscoring of the high importance the countries attach to both bilateral and regional cooperation, since some of the agreements which were finalized have a close bearing on the wellbeing of South Asia as well.

Among these agreements security and defense cooperation took top priority. For instance, there is the Coastal Radar System, comprising 10 radar stations, which was handed over by India to the Maldives. It is reported that this system would enhance the security of the Maldives and that of the region. There is also the National College for Policing and Law Enforcement of the Maldives, which was inaugurated by the Indian External Affairs Minister. This is said to be one of India’s largest grant-funded projects in the archipelago. It too has the potential to contribute significantly to the security of the region.

The above and many more cooperative ventures point to the pragmatic accent in the regional policy of the Maldives. There is no evidence here that the archipelago too is suffering from the ‘Big Brother’ fixation, which tends to get in the way of some of India’s smaller neighbours relating to her cordially with a degree of consistency. Besides, the importance of interacting amicably with India has been apparently impressed on the Maldivian public by the country’s political leadership quite effectively. This is because there is no evidence thus far of a widespread anti-India phobia among Maldivians.

Unfortunately, in the collective psyche of some of India’s smaller neighbours there is this subconscious resentment towards India which surfaces time and again even while sections of their political and social elites claim ‘kinship’ with India in the most flowery terms. Apparently, the roots of these contradictory pulls in minds could only be disclosed and made sense of by the psychiatrist.

The Indian External Affair’s Minister’s next stop-over was Sri Lanka and here too, a number of bilateral cooperative agreements in a range of areas were finalized, with the accent falling on economic assistance, security, energy and fisheries issues. Since Sri Lanka is today in dire need of financial and material help, the economic assistance project has not proved controversial but the same could not be said of some of the accords which come under the category of security.

For example, there are the MOUs relating to the setting up with Indian grant assistance of a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, the launching of a Unique Digital Identity program for Sri Lanka and the carrying out of hybrid power projects in some islands off Jaffna, which are being seen as controversial by sections of Sri Lankan opinion.

There may or may not be grounds for the airing of these reservations but it is up to the Sri Lankan side to ensure through skilled and foresightful diplomacy that vital local interests are not compromised through the finalization and implementation of these agreements. If some harm happens to be inflicted on Sri Lankan interests in the working out of these programs, Sri Lankan negotiators would have only themselves to blame for it. However, perceived pitfalls in these agreements should not be seen by the Sri Lankan side as calling in question the validity of the principles of bilateral and regional cooperation. These are matters that should be kept entirely separate from each other.

Fortunately, for the South Asian region and those adjacent to it, the BIMSTEC process is being carried forward. It is up to the states concerned to ensure that the regions figuring in the grouping gain substantially from their interactions. A BIMSTEC Charter is being formulated and it is vitally important to ensure through this document that thorny bilateral political issues in particular are not allowed to negatively impact the cooperation effort.

Unfortunately, the SAARC Charter and its institutions have proved incapable of insulating the cooperative process from vexatious bilateral political questions and this has led to the near incapacitation of SAARC. Hopefully, BIMSTEC would be spared this unhappy situation. However, there is no denying the importance of rejuvenating SAARC, considering its potential to contribute towards the general wellbeing of South Asia. BIMSTEC and SAARC need to be seen as complementing each other and should not be perceived as mutually exclusive processes.

It is important to note that the basic vision informing the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and kindred groupings, such as the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM), is the need for increasing economic connectivity and complementarity among the Asian countries concerned, which are mainly geographically contiguous. The relevant regions are seen as rich in resources, such as oil and petroleum, hydro power, forest products, horticulture and floriculture, besides being attractive to the tourist. It will be in the best interests of the regions and countries concerned for these resources to be explored and tapped collectively and cooperatively, with an eye on the equitable distribution of the economic benefits that these initiatives yield. Such efforts are central to the BIMSTEC vision.

Moreover, there is a growing consumer market in the areas in focus. Researchers point out, for instance, that, ‘A market of 400 million people is emerging, including neighbouring countries, such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Nepal which can be tapped.’ (‘India, China and Sub-regional Connectivities in South Asia’, edited by D. Suba Chandran and Bhavna Singh, a SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. work).

Tapping the development potential outlined above hinges of course on continued cooperative efforts by groupings such as BIMSTEC. This is an exacting challenge, considering that the regions and countries concerned are lacking in some major infrastructure facilities that could facilitate trade, investment and people-to-people contact. Accordingly, a strong, ready coming together of states to address these problems emerges as an imperative at this juncture.

Much will depend on India and China resolving their differences quickly and working consensually to take the ‘Asian Century’ to its logical conclusion. There are strong economic complementarities between, for example, India’s Northeast and the Southwest of China. While these positives must be judiciously tapped by these Asian giants, groupings such as BIMSTEC need to explore as to how they could make good use of these synergies.

All News Advertisement

Features

New US sanctions on ICC, a fillip to worldwide political repression

Published

10 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

The International Criminal Court in session. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s warning to the International Criminal Court (ICC) was stark: ‘Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.’ It followed US central administration accusations that the court was unfairly targeting Americans on the basis of trumped-up war crimes charges.

However, a new plethora of sanctions has been clamped on the ICC by the US, which in turn has spurred accusations by sections of the world that the latter has unleashed an ‘assault’ on the international legal order.

What some of the sanctions would mean for the ICC was outlined by Rubio: ‘We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us.’

The ICC has shown consistency of purpose over the years. Despite some operational constraints it has indicted a large number of political strongmen from around the world, accused of war crimes and other governance excesses that come under its purview. Two such recent figures are: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rather than enjoy a mere nominal presence in the world community, the ICC has proved its effectiveness by detaining and bringing to justice scores of VIP politicians and others of their ilk who have been found guilty of human rights abuses and kindred excesses that come within the terms of reference of the ICC.

Accordingly, the international justice system would be stymied considerably as a result of the ICC being dis-empowered, particularly financially. Needless to say, potential and real perpetrators of the species of crime coming under the jurisdiction of the ICC would stand to gain most from such anarchic tendencies. That is, political repression globally would be enabled to enjoy a new lease of life.

A detailing of the types of crime coming under the purview of the ICC provides an idea of what it would cost the international community if the ICC’s operations are gravely hampered. They are mainly: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

That is, the part of the world to be worst affected would be the global South, since the latter is awash with the mentioned crimes. Needless to say, a chronically-disaffected South will sooner rather than later undermine the well being of the world dangerously. The world is already being put through these paces.

At the time of writing, ‘illegal migrants’ from the South, for example, are aggravating many a Western economy’s woes, besides creating for them acute law and order issues. The fact that these migrants’ presence goes on to become a virtual test of the migrant receiving states’ ability to forge domestic social inclusion in the face of jingoistic protests by mainly white supremacist groups is evidence of the latter. As is known, the US, to take just one example, has been up against this crisis for quite a while.

Accordingly, it will be in the best interests of the West if ‘illegal’ migrant arrivals on their shores are stemmed. If the socio-political and economic problems assailing the South are effectively managed through North-South collaborative, ‘trouble-shooting’ efforts the causes leading to ‘illegal’ migration and connected issues could be resolved at source as it were. For, it is the aggravation of the South’s material questions that lays the basis for the emergence of repressive and anti-democratic regimes in the hemisphere.

Until such time that the aforementioned issues in North-South relations are visited afresh and addressed urgently, a vibrantly functioning ICC would be needed. For, the latter would prove a deterrent to Southern political and military strongmen, highly prone to power abuse and like excesses, from coming into being in the wake of the South’s chronic material woes and the wars and conflicts that result from them.

It stands to reason then that the US would be acting in its own interests by enabling the ICC to perpetuate its mandate without hindrance. For a crop of issues that impinges negatively on internal law and order would be defused.

Meanwhile, there needs to be a meeting of minds among the rest of the West to put back in place a North-South dialogue process aimed at reducing some of the economic pressures that are weighing on the South.

Since economics usually drives politics it will be in the interests of the world community to scrutinizingly re-visit North-South issues of the past and put in place economic relief packages for Southern publics that would enable them to tide over their material hardships rather than permit the latter to aggravate into social disaffection and eventually armed militancy. It is the latter juncture that paves the way for the emergence of authoritarian rulers in the South who then go on to be a blight on their publics.

Accordingly, the Southern-based global development thinking of the past that envisaged a more equitable world economic order needs to be seen as an urgent need. That is, NAM’s international development paradigms need to be resuscitated to the extent possible.

It is unlikely that rightist governments of the West, such as the current Republican administration in the US, would find these projects feasible, but democratic states of Europe, led by perhaps the UK, are likely to think otherwise. For it would not be beneficial for the democratic world to be having on their hands repressive governments in the South who would be gravitating towards the major military and economic actors of the South, such as Iran and North Korea, who tend to be in constant power struggles with the West.

However, until such time that the mentioned, pro-people initiatives are given serious thought the ICC would need to be enabled by the international community to be in place comfortably and carry on with its mandate of bringing repressive rulers to book. Besides the ICC should pave the way for the peoples of the developing world to enjoy some substantial respite from the political repression and even terror which tend to be their lot.

Meanwhile, the wars of West Asia are relentlessly aggravating the economic hardships of people everywhere, driving the point home to enlightened sections that there is no alternative to peacemaking. A challenge is to convert the US under President Trump to this line of thinking.

Features

Clear, soft and shine-free skin

Published

10 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

This week, I give you five simple, time-tested homemade remedies that help reduce the appearance of blemishes, control excess shine and leave your skin feeling softer and smoother.

The Honey and Lemon Brightening Dab:

For stubborn blemish marks, this is a classic. Mix one teaspoon of pure bee honey with three to four drops of fresh lemon juice. Apply gently, only on the affected spots, and leave for 10 minutes before rinsing with lukewarm water. While honey soothes and softens, lemon helps to brighten naturally. Use twice a week in the evening.

Besan and Rose Water Oil-Control Pack:

An ideal remedy to combat shine, especially on the T-zone. Take two teaspoons of besan (gram flour) and mix with sufficient rose water to form a smooth paste. Add a pinch of turmeric for its antiseptic goodness. Apply evenly, keep for 15 minutes and wash off. It absorbs excess oil without over-drying, leaving a beautiful matte finish.

Aloe Vera and Cucumber Ice Soother:

Blend fresh aloe vera gel with the juice of a grated cucumber and freeze the mixture in an ice tray. Each morning, wrap one cube in a soft muslin cloth and gently rub over a cleansed face for 30 seconds. It calms, tightens pores and imparts a baby-soft smoothness.

Oatmeal and Curd Gentle Polish:

Roughness and old blemish marks need gentle exfoliation. Combine one tablespoon of finely powdered oatmeal with one tablespoon of fresh curd (yoghurt). Massage very gently, in circular motions, for one minute, leave for five minutes and rinse. It removes dead cells and unveils softer, clearer skin.

Multani Mitti and Green Tea Magic Mask:

Brew some green tea and allow it to cool completely. Mix one and a half teaspoons of Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth) with the tea water to make a fine paste. Apply for 10 to 12 minutes – do not let it dry and crack completely – and wash off. It draws out impurities, fades blemishes and bestows a fresh, shine-free glow.

A Gentle Reminder:

As with any natural remedy, always do a patch test on your inner arm first. For those with oily or combination skin, avoid heavy coconut oil application and harsh scrubbing, as they tend to aggravate shine and blemishes.

Features

Compete, shine and be discovered at WCOPA 2027

Published

10 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

Dream of performing on a world stage? Well, here is your unique, golden opportunity!

The World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) — the one and only official “Talent Olympics” — is the world’s premier global platform for aspiring singers, dancers, actors, models, instrumentalists, etc., to compete, shine and be discovered!

And, yes, this world stage is open to YOU, Sri Lankans living in Sri Lanka and overseas!

Held annually in glittering Las Vegas, WCOPA brings together over 70 countries, all competing for Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals, just like the traditional Olympics.

Lakisha Bernard: Will represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA 2027

Outstanding performers vie for the coveted titles of Junior and Senior Grand Champion Performer of the World, with winners and standout participants awarded over $500,000 in scholarships, cash awards and prizes to catapult their education and careers!

Sri Lanka is already making waves! At WCOPA 2026, Natharie Wickramasinghe, representing Team Sri Lanka, made the nation proud by winning a Bronze Medal in the Ethnic/Folklore Dance category!

Lakisha: Accomplished freelance Model and Fashion Design graduate

Recruitment for this prestigious competition is handled through a system of scouts and licensed National Directors — and this is where our very own Chris Rajendra, now based in Las Vegas, and National Director for Team Sri Lanka, comes into the scene.

If you are a singer, dancer, actor, model, instrumentalist — if you have talent burning inside you — contact Chris Rajendra today for registration and, who knows, you may find yourself in Las Vegas, and proudly draped in the Sri Lankan flag, at WCOPA 2027!

The contact address is: Chris Rajendra, wcopa.nationaldirector.sl@gmail.com

or chris.rajendra@gmail.com

Meanwhile, a star is born for 2027, in the form of Lakisha Bernard who is all set to represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA 2027.

Originally hailing from the sun-drenched coastal city of Colombo and now carving out her creative career in Canada, 22-year-old Lakisha is stepping into the international spotlight.

This accomplished freelance Model and Fashion Design graduate has officially been appointed as the Team Sri Lanka Promoter for Canada as she prepares to represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA in Las Vegas.

Lakisha brings a unique blend of high-fashion sensibility, captivating camera presence and expert garment design to the Team.

Having built her career, from local college shoots to high-glamour concepts, Lakisha’s inspiring journey embodies the true spirit of cultural bridge-building and creative resilience, bringing immense pride and recognition to Sri Lanka on the global stage.

WCOPA 2027 will be held at the legendary Westgate Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, from 12th to 20th July – the very same iconic arena where the late, great Elvis Presley himself performed!

Your moment is now. Your stage is Las Vegas, so hurry and contact Chris Rajendra.