International Affairs

පසුගිය 2020 වසරේ කොවිඩ් වසංගත අර්බුධයේ ආරම්භයෙන් පසු මෙරටට පැමිණෙන ප්‍රථම රාජ්‍ය නායකයා ලෙස පකිස්තාන අගමැති ඉම්රාන් ඛාන් ලබන පෙබරවාරි 23 වනදා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට සැපත්වීමට නියමිත බව විදේශ ලේකම් අද්මිරාල් ආචාර්ය ජයන්ත කොළඹගේ පවසයි.

Russia has expressed its willingness to allow Sri Lanka to produce its own Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V locally if the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) authorises it for local use, a senior state official said. The Sputnik V vaccine is already being manufactured in India and those two countries signed agreements last year to produce 300 million doses of the Russian vaccine in Indian laboratories.

A vaccine war has erupted between Britain and the European Union with Brussels demanding that tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses earmarked for Britain, and made by a British pharmaceutical company, be diverted to Europe to make up for a shortfall in promised deliveries.

Sri Lanka, having faced terrorism for nearly 30 years, remains concerned by the unabated progression of terrorism in all its forms and manifestation, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Secretary to the UN Mohan Peiris said.

JERUSALEM - In the first large-scale, controlled data outside clinical trials, the two-dose Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is showing 92 percent effectiveness, according to Israeli health officials. It’s good news for Pfizer, which says the vaccine also appears to work against the British mutation of COVID-19.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged China and the United States on Thursday to "reset" relations, suggesting they cooperate on common interests such as fighting climate change.

In a historic move, the UAE on Saturday announced major changes to the citizenship law, to allow for the naturalisation of foreign investors, doctors, scientists, artists and talented people and their families.

Scientists with the World Health Organization’s team investigating the source of the coronavirus that has infected more than 102 million people worldwide and killed more than 2.2 million have visited one of the hospitals in Wuhan, China, that treated some of the first patients.

The Foreign Ministers of Sri Lanka and the Philippines have agreed to focus on new strategies to further strengthen the existing economic, political, social and international relations between the two countries.

Sri Lanka’s head is once again on the UNHRC’s chopping block, as it has been pretty much since May 2009; but this year, the country seems a lot closer to being struck a severe blow. It is not entirely unexpected, given the Government’s decision last February to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution 30/1 and others adopted after 2015. This Resolution was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka under the previous Government.

European Union regulators on Friday approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the third vaccine approved for use on the European continent.

The United Nations has made public a damning report on Sri Lanka and has proposed targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans against credibly alleged perpetrators of grave human rights violations and abuses.

A team of World Health Organization scientists investigating the source of the coronavirus visited a wet market Sunday in Wuhan, China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill extending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States a week before the pact was set to expire.

In a controversial move the Sri Lankan government has decided to commence dipomatic ties with Liechtenstein, a Central European country with a population of less than 40,000.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a number of other ruling party officials were detained Monday, a spokesperson said.

SYDNEY (Reuters): New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan rank the top three in a COVID Performance Index of almost 100 countries for their successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with Britain and America near the bottom of the pile.

The European Union (EU) and Sri Lanka held their 23rd meeting of the Joint Commission on 25 January, via video conference.