Search teams which which reached the site had found burnt out wreckage and charred bodies.

Turkey produces advanced NATO-compatible drones.

The weather in the area was bad and visibility was low with foggy conditions, which also hampered teams on the ground, but there is no information on the exact reason for the crash.

RELATED Possible crash site of Iran President’s helicopter helicopter probed: IRNA

President Raisi was returning from a border region with Azerbaijan after opening a dam project.

Two other helicopters which took off with the President’s helicopter had landed safely.

The helicopter is believed to be a US made Bell 212/412 Iran acquired before sanctions hit the country and may be very old.

The crash site is an area called Tawil, the report said.

Turkey’s high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle named Akinji also detected a hot spot that probably belongs to the place where the helicopter crashed, IRNA said.

Rescuers are looking for a helicopter which crashed or forced landed with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on board in bad weather, the Iranian news agency said.

President Raisi was returning from a border region with Azerbaijan after opening a dam project.

Domestic and international teams are looking for the helicopter which went down in mountainous terrain in bad weather.

Rescuers are also hampered by dense fog, reports said.

Two other helicopters which took off with the President’s helicopter has landed safely.

The helicopter is believed to be a US made Bell 212/412 Iran acquired before sanctions hit the country and may be very old. (Colombo/May20/2024)

The debt restructuring will be among the topics to be included during the discussion, one source said.

Macron visit comes a month after Wickremesinghe went to Paris on the invitation of Macron and took part in the Global Leaders’ Summit for a New Global Financing Pact.

At the summit and during meetings with world leaders attending the summit held from June 22-25, Wickremesinghe explained Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring measures which are linked to the release of the second tranche of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility in September.

Sri Lanka is one of four countries in the world, selected by the International Olympic Committee to give financial support the forest regeneration. 

“In order to face the future generations with various environmental impacts, forests and plantations should be created as much as possible, and wastelands should be turned into forests,” Pavithra Wanniyarachi, Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation said. 

To help future generations facing environmental impacts as much bare lands as possible should be turned into forested areas, Wildlife Forest Resources Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said in a statement.

Sri Lanka’s Department of Forest Conservation has agreed to provide 100 pr 200 acres of bare lands to grow forests.

The IOC would provide financial support for the program. Sri Lanka Olympic Committee Chairman Suresh Subramanium and General Secretary Maxwell de Silva had helped bring the program to th island, the statement said. (Colombo/July04/2023)

The fourth Joint Commision between Sri Lanka and the Maldives will be held in Colombo on June 6 and 7, the Foreign Ministry said.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry, will co-chair the Joint Commission with his counterpart Abdulla Shahid.

The meeting will also be opportune for discussions on education, health, employment, youth, sports and skills development, consular and cultural affairs.

On the sidelines of the Joint Commission, several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) will also be signed, the statement said. (Colombo/June05/2023)

The Korea nstitute for Technology will grant 5.2 million US dollars to sri Lnaka’s Sustainable Energy Authority the two plants.

They will be built on the Chandrika Wewa in the Sabaragamuwa province and the Kiri Ibban Wewa in the Uva Province by Korean engineering firms.

The project would be be completed by December 2024, Wijesekara said. (Colombo/May31/2023)

Wickremesinghe made these comments when he addressed at “Nikkei Forum: Future of Asia‟ held in Tokyo, Japan today on Thursday (25) and highlighted the importance of Asian states having a voice in shaping the region’s role amidst the evolving geopolitics on the global stage.

“We in Asia don’t want to choose between the U.S. and China,” Wickremesinghe told the gathering.

“Many of us cannot make that choice because we have already made our choice, and that choice is Asia,” he said.

Future of Asia is an international gathering where political, economic, and academic leaders from the Asia-Pacific region offer their opinions frankly and freely on regional issues and the role of Asia in the world.

The forum has been held by Nikkei every year since 1995 and it is considered to be one of the most important global conferences in Asia.

Wickremesinghe, invited in his capacity as Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister for the forum , said that all the Asian nations have benefited from the cooperation between the US and China in the post-Cold War era, but the subsequent rapid rise of China and the inability of the two countries to agree on China‟s role on the international stage have led to rivalry, which he referred as “needless tensions in our part of the world”.

China has launched an ambitious Belt Road Initiative (BRI) covering mainly Asia and Africa while the US, as an alternative, has pushed for Indo-Pacific Strategy in the region, stretching from our Pacific coastline to the Indian Ocean, home to more than half of the world’s people, nearly two-thirds of the world’s economy, and seven of the world’s largest militaries.

“We want an Asia that can accommodate the Indo-Pacific, the BRI, as well as the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo- Pacific,” Wickremesinghe said.

“The BRI is a strategy to increase China‟s influence in Asia and Africa through economic means. We, the members of the BRI, have no security arrangements with China, nor do we intend to enter into any security agreements with China.”

“The Indo-Pacific is an evolving concept with unanswered questions.”

Center of Geopolitics

Sri Lanka has become the center of geopolitical war between China and the US in South Asia with India, the world’s sixth largest economy is being a strong ally of the US. The island nation has been under pressure by both India and the West for allowing Chinese investments into the country, citing possible security concerns in the Indian Ocean, government sources have said.

Wickremesinghe said the US – China rivalry has given rise to a number of responses by the West especially to economic coercion and weaponizing of economic vulnerabilities.

“Yet some of these responses may result in a setback to trade integration in the region. Unlike the West, Asia is dominated by middle-income and low-income economies.”

“Of the 12 high-income economies in Asia, only 6 are outside West Asia. The rest of us, including China, India, and Indonesia, are middle income economies. We have to overcome the middle-income trap of economic stagnation.”

In addition to economic coercion, Wickremesinghe said, economic decoupling in which different asset classes that typically rise and fall together start to move in opposite directions, and similar measures contrary to the World Trade Organization rules are other impediments to trade integration.

“Needless to say that we in Sri Lanka and many other Asian nations are opposed to economic coercion: whether it be by one country coercing another using its economic power; or by indirect methods such as de-coupling, or friend-shoring – manufacturing and sourcing only from geopolitical allies – contrary to the WTO,” he said.

“Thus, the WTO system put in place three decades ago should not be by-passed for short term geo-strategic gains. The rules of the game cannot be changed arbitrarily. The losers will be the middle-income Asian countries.” (Colombo/May 25/2023)

At least two people have been confirmed dead after the Chinese fishing vessel Lupeng Yuanyu 028 with 39 crew members on board capsized in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday (16).

The distant-water fishing vessel capsized with 17 Chinese sailors, 17 Indonesians and five Filipinos on board, international media have reported.

Indian Navy said “in a swift humanitarian action” on May 17, it deployed its “Air MR assets in the Southern Indian Ocean Region approximately 900 nautical miles from India.

“Truly appreciate the timely help！,” the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi said in its twitter feed, responding to a twitter from Indian Navy.

Truly appreciate the timely help！ https://t.co/hHUDNW2ndL

— Embassy of The People's Republic of China in India (@China_Amb_India) May 18, 2023

Both India and China have been rivals amid concerns that Beijing was in the process of spreading its military operations in the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lanka has been at the focal point of the geopolitical war between the two Asian giants with China has loaned to the island nation billions of dollars mostly for infrastructure projects including some with negative returns of investments.

India has repeatedly raised increasing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka. (Colombo/May 20/2023)

The Free trade agreement hopes to increase exports to the Asian nation, Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardana said.

The first round of discussions between the two nations happened in 2016 followed by a second round in 2018. The latest talks were on January 09-10, 2023.

The fourth round of talks on the proposed FTA held in Colombo on March 27-29, and to hold the next round of negotiations on June 27-28 in Colombo.

The agreement is expected to increase the current export value of 550 million US dollars per annum to 1.5 billion US dollars. (Colombo/ May10/2023)

In a budget for 2023, President Ranil Wickremesinghe had said that paid wards will be set up in national and base hospitals, starting with the Colombo National hospital.

“There is a paying ward system in our general hospitals,” Gunawardana said.

“By expanding it we hope to provide that service in a better way while keeping the free medical services available”

State workers covered by ‘Agrahara’ life insurance and other insurance facilities while many have inquired regarding paying wards in government hospitals, the statement said. (Colombo/ May09/2023)

“The Joint Commission will deliberate on a broad range of bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual interest to both sides and discuss areas for future cooperation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The European Union delegation will brief on the new cycle of the EU GSP Regulation to be adopted for 2024 – 2033, which will be effective from 1 January 2024 for the next 10 years.”

The outcome of the three Working Groups established under the Joint Commission namely, the Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights; the Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation; and the Working Group on Development Cooperation will also be discussed at the meeting.

The meeting co-chaired by Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka Aruni Wijewardane and Deputy Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific of the European External Action Service of the EU Paola Pampaloni will be held in Colombo on May 09.

The MoU will be signed between the Customs and the Australian Border Force.

“The aim of the MoU is to do custom operations according to the legal frame work, policies and the process in both countries,” a statement said.

The clearance by the Attorney General has already being given to the draft of the MoU.

“This MoU is highly important specially in trade activates between the two countries” Minister Gunawardana told reporters at the cabinet briefing on Wednesday. (Colombo/ May 03/2023)

He will be accompanied by Director General of the Department of External Resources Ajith Abeysekera.

“The Foreign Minister will deliver a statement at the Governor’s Business Session on 4 May 2023 among other interventions during the period,” the statement said.

Minister Sabry will meet with the counterparts of a number of other countries on the sidelines of the event, to discuss Sri Lanka’s ongoing engagements for economic revival.

“The Annual Meeting is a high-level event attended by around 3,000-4,000 participants, including Ministers of Finance, Governors of Central Banks, Senior Officials of the major global banks, companies and media.”  (Colombo/ April 28/2023)

Sri Lanka’s Ports Ministry has started to build a passenger terminal in Kankasanthurai (KKS) port in the northern Jaffna peninsula with the help of the Sri Lanka Navy at a cost of 144 million rupees to support the ferry service.

The ferry service will operate between KKS and Karaikal Port in Pondicherry, India.

“There are private ferry owners who operate the services, and at the moment, there only three ferry operators,” Viraj Abeysinghe, the Media Secretary of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation, told Economy Next.

“However, we, as a ministry, provide infrastructure facilities only. A ferry will carry 150 passengers at a time and will take around a 4-hour journey from Karaikal Port to KKS Port.”

The charges will start from 50 US dollars per passenger for a one-way trip, which is roughly around 16,075 rupees, and a baggage allowance of 100 kilos will be permitted.

The charges will start from 50 US dollars per passenger for a one-way trip, which is roughly around 16,075 rupees, and a baggage allowance of 100 kilos will be permitted.

“The ferry service will cater to a different sector of the market because it is going to be cheaper than traveling by air,” Priyantha Fernando, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, told Economy Next.

“So we are opening up to a different segment of the market, and it will definitely make a positive contribution.

“This will definitely help tourism, and it will also help commercial activity because the baggage allowance is much greater, and there will be trade taking place between India and Sri Lanka.”

Entrepreneurs from Sri Lanka and India are encouraged to join this opportunity.

The service will also open up the way for export and imports for cheaper prices, which can indirectly benefit the country, he said. (Colombo/Apr21/2023)

The inaugural Strategic Dialogue at ministry secretary level is convened at the invitation of UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office as the two countries celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations.

The UK Minister of State in the FCDO Anne Marie Trevelyan will open the forum with the participation of Sir Philip Barton, the Permanent Undersecretary of the FCDO.

The meeting aims to provide a platform for the countries to discuss various topics related to their bilateral relationship, the statement said.

Wijewardane is also expected to meet with Assistant Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Luis G. Franceschi, and members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).

Beijing has given over $170 billion for distressed nations and $70 billion as balance of payments support for the 22 countries mostly involved with Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project, the report co-authored by Sebastian Horn from the World Bank, Bradley C. Parks from AidData of William & Mary, Carmen M. Reinhart from Harvard Kennedy School, and Christoph Trebesch from Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

The report comes amid increasing Western allegations that China is using its lending as a debt trap with an agenda to own assets in developing nations.

“However, China’s rescue loans differ from those of established international lenders of last resort in that they are opaque, carry relatively high interest rates, and are almost exclusively targeted to debtors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative,” the experts said.

“What is less well understood and of more recent vintage is the large and rising number of Chinese bailouts to countries in distress over the past 15 years. This paper shows that the Chinese government has created a new system of international rescue lending, which has not yet been documented or studied.”

The Belt and Road Initiative, known within China as the One Belt One Road or OBOR, was initiated in 2013 as a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by President Xi Jinping’s ambitious project to invest in more than 150 countries and international organizations.

“China’s role as an international crisis manager has grown exponentially in recent years following its long boom in overseas lending,” the experts said in the report.

“Our findings have major implications for the evolution of the international financial system, as cross-border rescue operations become less institutionalized, less transparent, and more piecemeal.”

“China has demonstrated that a major creditor country (notwithstanding its current status as an emerging market) can create a large system of cross-border rescue lending to nearly two dozen recipient countries, while at the same time keeping its bailout operations largely out of public sight.”

Findings from the study indicate that 80 percent of the bailout money was spent between the years 2016 to 2021, in middle-income countries like Pakistan, Argentina, and Mongolia.

The study also shows that China’s position is far from rivaling that of the United States or the IMF, which are at the center of today’s international financial and monetary system and the effectiveness of its rescue lending operations is not well understood.

While China has focused its sovereign debt restructuring efforts (with little or no new money) in low-income countries, its international bailout activities are concentrated in middle-income countries, the report said (Colombo/March30/2023)

“Even if it is only one flight, there is a chance an accident may occur,” Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka, Director General, P. A. Jayakantha said.

“This particular committee is there to investigate aircraft accidents and act as a mechanism to take over if something goes wrong”.

Sri Lanka has encountered around 2,700 minor aircraft accidents and incidents mostly on the ground in the 19 years through 2021, the CAA annual reports showed.

The new committee will analyze the past accidents and take precautionary measures while also conducting investigations and provide independent reports in the future, Jayakantha said.

The team is provided with required training and qualifications by the CAA along with an International organization, free of charge.

“Internationally also it is a requirement to have a team to investigate the aircraft accidents,” Jayakantha added.

“For a long time we have not fulfilled this requirement and that is why we established this team with the cabinet approval. Moreover, recently, Sri Lanka’s two aircrafts, one training aircraft and a commercial aircraft met an accident”

The committee will be on active duty, until the Accident Investigation Act is passed and a proper Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation Bureau is established. (Colombo/ Mar23/2023)

They joined about 3000 Sri Lankan pilgrims who travel to the island every year.

“The Festival underscores strong people to people ties between India and Sri Lanka while also paving way for close interaction between fishermen communities of the maritime neighbours,” the Indian High Commission said.

The Government of India is providing financial assistance for the organization of the festivities this year, the Indian High Commission said.

A Mass dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, the patron Saint of Fishermen was jointly conducted by priests from India and Sri Lanka on 4 March 2023, followed by the traditional feast.

Stalls displaying and selling artisanal works of both Indian and Sri Lankan pilgrims were set up.

Indian pilgrims come to the festival every year but festivities were affected during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Colombo/ Mar 05/2023)

The President of Turkey has declared state of Emergency for three months in 10 provinces to carry out rescue operations without disruptions, the Sri Lanka Embassy in Ankar said in its latest report.

“The Sri Lanka Army has placed a contingent of military personnel from the medical and engineering corps in readiness to support search and rescue operations in Türkiye. The contingent would be dispatched upon the request of the Government of Türkiye for such emergency assistance,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Sri Lanka is providing assistance despite being in a severe economic crunch.

Sri Lanka has a practice of offering tea to disaster hit nations.

The earthquake that recorded a magnitude of 7.8 has killed around 7,962 in Turkey and Syria, reports said.

United Nations (UN) is releasing $25 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to provide urgent support across the whole region.

It was confirmed that 16 Sri Lankans living in the affected areas in Türkiye, out of which 15 persons have been verified to be safe, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Ankara, Hasanthi Urugodawatte Dissanayake said.

The Sri Lanka Embassy in Ankara is in the process of ascertaining the status of the remaining Sri Lankan national. The Sri Lanka Embassy’s emergency hotline +90 534 456 94 98 continues to provide service inquiries on Sri Lankans living in Türkiye.

Sri Lanka recalled with gratitude the humanitarian assistance provided by the Government of Türkiye to the country following the devastating Tsunami of December 2004.

During the Tsunami, Turkey provided financial relief of US $ 700,000 to the President’s Fund for Disaster Relief to be used exclusively for relief and humanitarian efforts. (Colombo/Feb08/2023)

Chief Executive Officer of the Qatar Charity Yousef Al-Kuwari had met Foreign Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka Ali Sabry on Wednesday and had assured “all possible support to Sri Lanka, and stated that 11 million USD worth of projects are identified for Sri Lanka as per the action plan of Qatar Charity of this year”.

Qatar Charity was accused by a top public security minister Sarath Weerasekera under the former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government to having linking’s with ISIS, who was behind the bloody 2019 Easter Sunday attacks in island.

The charity’s office was also reopened in Colombo on January 11, 2023.

Weerasekara told parliament on January 07 2021 that the ringleader of the Easter Sunday suicide bombers Zaharan Hashim had conducted lectures in an organisation maintained by Sri Lankan lawyer Hejaz Hisbullah.

Related: Crisis-hit Sri Lanka lifts ban on Qatar Charity as it tries to secure fuel supply from Doha

The organisation, named ‘Pearl of Unity’, and its local branch was funded by Qatar Charity which Weerasekara claimed was banned by the United Nations.

Subsequently, the charity’s accounts were frozen and lawyer was arrested arbitrarily and held in custody for 22-months.

However, when the country was hurtled in to a financial crisis in early part of 2022 due to a dollar shortage, Sri Lankan government removed the ban on the charity and reached out to the Islamic nation to secure fuel. (Colombo/Jan12/2023)