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Sri Lanka: Is Indian concerns on Chinese naval presence justified?
Nov 18, 2014

Sri Lanka: Is Indian concerns on Chinese naval presence justified?

Since 2010, some 250 naval vessels from across a wide spectrum of nations have berthed at Sri Lankan ports. If Indians have to suspect Sri Lanka in the matter of Chinese naval vessels, then they would have to suspect a host of other nations.

Sri Lanka: Issues with India Need Early Resolution
Mar 18, 2011

Sri Lanka: Issues with India Need Early Resolution

The recent faux pas of Prime Minister D M Jayaratne's allegation of 'LTTE camps in Tamil Nadu' had the potential to damage bilateral relations with the Indian neighbour,

Sri Lanka: Keeping the Palk, Straight
Dec 07, 2012

Sri Lanka: Keeping the Palk, Straight

No other dispute, including the sensitive 'ethnic row', impacts as much on India-Sri Lanka relations than the 'fishing issue', particularly over the medium and long terms. Much as the Government of India is keen on seeing a negotiated settlement to the ethnic issue, the political solution would still have to be thrashed out by the stake-holders in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka: Moving away from bottom-trawling still the way out for TN fishers?
Sep 26, 2014

Sri Lanka: Moving away from bottom-trawling still the way out for TN fishers?

The much-publicised first round of the officials-level talks on resolving the India-Sri Lanka fishing issue has ended up as a non-starter. However, hopes still cannot be ruled out for a possible, if not early, solution.

Sri Lanka: Need for a 'national anthem' for all
Feb 08, 2013

Sri Lanka: Need for a 'national anthem' for all

In the heat and dust kicked off by issues such as the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka missed what could well have emerged as a national discourse on an issue of equal, if not greater import.

Sri Lanka: Need to revisit past positions on ethnic front
Jun 14, 2013

Sri Lanka: Need to revisit past positions on ethnic front

Reports that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leadership is in Delhi this week for an exchange of views with the Indian leadership should be utilised by both sides to review their known positions on 13-A, and should not stop with reiterating the same.

Sri Lanka: Playing peace-maker between India and China?
Apr 03, 2015

Sri Lanka: Playing peace-maker between India and China?

Reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping had proposed trilateral talks involving the shared Indian neighbour at a meeting with visiting Sri Lankan counterpart Maithripala Sirisena should make New Delhi sit up and take notice.

Sri Lanka: Poll Results and the Peace Process
Apr 06, 2004

Sri Lanka: Poll Results and the Peace Process

The just-concluded parliamentary polls in Sri Lanka may have a lesson or two for political parties in India, which too is facing elections in the coming weeks. If past parallels are any indicator of a sub-continental voter-behaviour, the average Sri Lankan has gone with bread-and-butter issues, highlighted by the United People¿s Freedom Alliance (UPFA)

Sri Lanka: Prescription for a political solution
Jul 19, 2012

Sri Lanka: Prescription for a political solution

Unknown to the world and unacknowledged by the international community, Sri Lanka may be running to a point of no-return, all over again. 'International intervention' in the form of UNHRC resolutions has made the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa more vulnerable in electoral terms ? or,

Sri Lanka: Recognising India's role in growth
Jul 22, 2011

Sri Lanka: Recognising India's role in growth

In an observation recently in the Sri Lankan Parliament, External Affairs Minister G L Peiris asserted that the country could not achieve its development goals without India, which was going to play a vital role in achieving such targets.

Sri Lanka: Swapping of fishers, just a beginning
Dec 31, 2014

Sri Lanka: Swapping of fishers, just a beginning

The Centre needs to consider a short-cut into the seas for the most-affected Rameswaram fishers in particular to cut their travel time, diesel storage and the like by 8-10 hours, while going into the deep-seas. It will also be their collective responsibility to motivate, train and equip the southern coastal fishers in deep-sea fishing.

Sri Lanka: Taking the momentum forward
Oct 15, 2010

Sri Lanka: Taking the momentum forward

Though the Delhi visit of President Rajapaksa was CW Games-centric, it also caused raising of eyebrows in the strategic community in New Delhi, wondering if the re-elected President, who is scheduled to visit China later this month, is seeking to strike a parity in bilateral relations with the two Asian giants.

Sri Lanka: Taking the Peace Process Forward
Apr 19, 2004

Sri Lanka: Taking the Peace Process Forward

The end to ¿Karuna rebellion¿ inside the LTTE, as fast as it commenced in early March also marks the beginning of a new, rather revived pace in the Sri Lanka peace process. Within days of telling the world who was the boss in all the Tamil-speaking areas in the North and the East, the LTTE sat across the table with the Government team, facilitated again by the Norway-led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM),

Sri Lanka: Tales which pictures don't tell
Feb 20, 2013

Sri Lanka: Tales which pictures don't tell

Since the BBC Channel IV film director has indicated that one purpose of the controversial film on the Sri Lankan war may have been to act in a particular way at the UNHRC session in Geneva next month, New Delhi has to be wary of efforts to influence its decision.

Sri Lanka: Tamil separatists putting India on notice again?
Jun 09, 2015

Sri Lanka: Tamil separatists putting India on notice again?

With Tamil Nadu Assembly elections due by May next year and an anti-Jaya political realignment likely on cards, the Sri Lankan Tamil 'separatists' appear to be trying to drive a wedge between political parties in Tamil Nadu. The purpose seems to be to try and embarrass prospective allies of the DMK.

Sri Lanka: Tamils as 'masters of their destiny'
Aug 17, 2013

Sri Lanka: Tamils as 'masters of their destiny'

The moderate Tamil polity in Sri Lanka has been slow in delivering on the promises given to the Government side on the one hand, and to the international facilitator of any given time, on the other.

Sri Lanka: The Diaspora Talk
Nov 12, 2010

Sri Lanka: The Diaspora Talk

Overnight, there is more activity on the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora front than earlier. It is not only that the 'Trans-national government of Tamil Eelam' (TNGTE) has given itself a 'cabinet'with US-based Rudrakumaran as 'prime minister',

Sri Lanka: Thinking beyond UNHRC-3
Feb 07, 2014

Sri Lanka: Thinking beyond UNHRC-3

Now there is a consistent and continuing apprehension about the West coming up with a draft at the Geneva session that will have greater acceptability in the UNHRC already. It is here India may be called upon to take a position all over again.

Sri Lanka: TN initiative to de-congest Palk Bay fishing takes concrete shape
Jul 29, 2015

Sri Lanka: TN initiative to de-congest Palk Bay fishing takes concrete shape

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa recently distributed Rs 30 lakh as subsidy, in a total estimated cost of Rs 60 lakhs, to help enable the State's fishermen to undertake deep-sea fishing in a big way. It is expected to help decongest fishing in the Palk Bay, and help reduce tensions with Sri Lankan fishers.

Sri Lanka: TNA sending out confusing signals to India?
Oct 20, 2014

Sri Lanka: TNA sending out confusing signals to India?

Sri Lanka's Northern Province Tamil Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran seems to be sending contradictory signals to India through his actions. On the one hand, he wants India to play an active role in finding a 'political solution' to the ethnic problem. On the other, he boycotted the India-funded Colombo-Jaffna railway inauguration and earlier President's invitation to be part of the delegation to India.

Sri Lanka: Trincomalee in development discourse
Aug 03, 2012

Sri Lanka: Trincomalee in development discourse

In a masterly stroke aimed at improving bilateral economic relations on the one hand, and job opportunities for the Tamil victims of the ethnic war, New Delhi and Colombo have agreed to set up Special Economic Zones (SEZ) for Indian engineering.

Sri Lanka: Understanding the UNHRC vote
Mar 16, 2012

Sri Lanka: Understanding the UNHRC vote

The increasing effort at marginalisation of Sri Lanka in the international arena, with hopes that a vote against the country at UNHRC could well shame the Government into taking pro-active measures at an early political solution are misplaced, at best.

Sri Lanka: UNHRC can still be an albatross
Jun 03, 2015

Sri Lanka: UNHRC can still be an albatross

The Sri Lankan Government's decision not to send a 'special delegation' for the 29th session of the UNHRC this month should be seen as an attempt to try and 'de-politicise' the engagement with the UN body.

Sri Lanka: UNHRC, Ukraine-Crimea and the 'neo cold war'
Mar 22, 2014

Sri Lanka: UNHRC, Ukraine-Crimea and the 'neo cold war'

Independent of the fate of the UNHRC vote this time, the recent referendum in distant Crimea should be a shocking eye-opener to Sri Lankan stake-holders of the 'ethnic issue', 'accountability calls' and all attendant concerns.

Sri Lanka: Velvet gloves yet a firm grip, from India
May 23, 2014

Sri Lanka: Velvet gloves yet a firm grip, from India

By inviting SAARC Heads of Government for his inauguration, prime minister-designate Narendra Modi has demonstrated a firm grip over the emerging foreign policy scenario(s) and his vision of and for an India of the future.

Sri Lanka: What after India's UNHRC-3
Mar 28, 2014

Sri Lanka: What after India's UNHRC-3

India's abstention from voting at the UNHRC session in Geneva means that India has now re-positioned itself to re-engage the Sri Lankan stake-holders in a constructive way, as articulated by Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid long before the vote.

Sri Lanka: What the TNA can do for India to help
Jul 10, 2014

Sri Lanka: What the TNA can do for India to help

Public posturing apart, moderate Tamils in Sri Lanka seem to want India to intercede on their behalf all over again and help arrive at a political settlement on the ethnic issue with their nation's government.

Sri Lanka: Where bilateral interests with India collude or collide
Oct 28, 2011

Sri Lanka: Where bilateral interests with India collude or collide

With the international community refusing to take its focus off the human rights situation in Sri Lanka even in the midst of developments in West Asia and North Africa, there are now expectations that it could well be Colombo's turn to be called to account for, though to be at a lesser degree.

Sri Lanka: Where from here, LLRC Report?
Dec 22, 2011

Sri Lanka: Where from here, LLRC Report?

With the international community reacting on expected lines on the Report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the matter could now be expected to be taken up by the West in forums where they have a say.

Sri Lanka: Why India should not vote against Sri Lanka at UNHRC
Mar 06, 2014

Sri Lanka: Why India should not vote against Sri Lanka at UNHRC

India thus cannot afford to vote against Sri Lanka at UNHRC, now or later. If India needs to engage with Sri Lanka for helping the Tamils, it cannot do so from a perceived position of animosity and antagonism.

Sri Lanka: Why Modi Govt should build on inherited policy
Jul 25, 2014

Sri Lanka: Why Modi Govt should build on inherited policy

If anyone in southern Tamil Nadu, or across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka, thought that there would be a grandiose shift in India's policy towards the southern Sri Lankan neighbour under a new, BJP dispensation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a lie to their hopes and claims.

Sri Lanka: Why TNA should not boycott the PSC
Jul 04, 2013

Sri Lanka: Why TNA should not boycott the PSC

The Sri Lankan Government's current efforts at reviving the PSC process may have come a little too late in the day, but then it could claim that it was more focussed on conducting the Northern Provincial Council polls, as promised by President Rajapaksa, in September.

Sri Lankan media not happy with India's response to UN Report on human rights violations
Jul 05, 2011

Sri Lankan media not happy with India's response to UN Report on human rights violations

A delegation of senior journalists from Sri Lanka and Maldives visited Observer Research Foundation and held interaction with its faculty on July 5, 2011. The interaction, chaired by Mr. H.H.S. Viswanathan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF and a former ambassador.

Sri Lankan Premier India Visit: An Opportunity Lost?
Jul 20, 2004

Sri Lankan Premier India Visit: An Opportunity Lost?

The Sri Lankan Premier Mahinda Rajapakse has completed his three-day visit to India over the weekend from July 17 to 19. He was here on the invitation of the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Srinagar - Muzzafarabad Bus: A Security Nightmare
Apr 06, 2005

Srinagar - Muzzafarabad Bus: A Security Nightmare

Indian security agencies will be keeping their fingers crossed as, for the first time in 57 years, passenger buses start plying on April 7,2005, between Srinagar, the capital of Jammu & Kashmir (J) and Muzzafarabad, the capital of what Pakistan calls Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir) and what we in India call Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK).

Stabilising Indo-Pakistan Relations
May 19, 2004

Stabilising Indo-Pakistan Relations

Several high-priority issues will need the new government¿s immediate attention as it assumes office. The Kashmir issue and its impact on the ongoing Indo-Pak entente should be one of them.

Stable democracy in Pak will take long: Ashley Tellis
Jan 03, 2008

Stable democracy in Pak will take long: Ashley Tellis

Dr. Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, spoke to Rahul Mukand, Junior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, in New Delhi recently. This interview was conducted before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007.

Stalin not a bad word in Russia any longer
Jul 20, 2012

Stalin not a bad word in Russia any longer

Stalin is no longer a bad name in Russia. Russian scholar Sergey Kurginyan says a recent opinion poll suggests that that "80% of the Russian population feel the peo ple were better off during the Soviet period."

Staring down the dragon while embracing it
Jun 02, 2015

Staring down the dragon while embracing it

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's engagement with Asia is primarily aimed at completing two specific national projects, while at the same time positioning India at the helm of global affairs.

Stars, stripes and chakras: The future of US-India defence ties
Dec 27, 2012

Stars, stripes and chakras: The future of US-India defence ties

The ongoing challenge for the Indian and US governments is to define what exactly the "strategic relationship" is in form and function, in which context a defence relationship will mature.

State of Global Terrorism
Sep 11, 2005

State of Global Terrorism

What are the imperatives if the international community has to ultimately prevail over international jihadi terrorism of the Al Qaeda brand?

State of Jihadi Terrorism
Jun 30, 2005

State of Jihadi Terrorism

Since April, 2005, there has been a co-ordinated escalation of acts of jihadi terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Jammu and Kashmir (J) State of India. It is my assessment that the coming months will see more and not less incidents of jihadi terrorism in these three areas.

Statehood for Delhi: Is it practical?
Mar 05, 2015

Statehood for Delhi: Is it practical?

The Aam Aadmi Party's unprecedented electoral victory in Delhi has revived the debate on full statehood to Delhi. But how practical is the statehood for the national capital? What are the issues? To discuss these issues, ORF organised a panel discussion with experienced bureaucrats, academics and experts.

Statistics indicate a historical result in the US elections
Sep 13, 2012

Statistics indicate a historical result in the US elections

Following the two national conventions held by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, the race to the White House has gained more steam. It was an opportune time to take the debate on the US Presidential election

Statute-change mooted for better civil-military cooperation
Jan 10, 2015

Statute-change mooted for better civil-military cooperation

As evolved in the US and the UK, an Integrated Defence Staff, in which 'army controls army', is the need of the hour for better implementation of required reforms. This weakness can be resolved only through a constitutional amendment or to the Rules of Business of the Government, or both, says Lt-Gen. S. Pattabhiraman (Retd).