Monitor Memo

COLOMBO, 5 July 2026 India will transfer its visa, passport, and consular processing in Sri Lanka to a new outsourcing contractor on Monday, the High Commission of India in Colombo has announced, reviving an intermediary system that its diplomatic missions had run themselves for the past eight months. Alhind Global Services, an arm of a Kerala-based travel and services group, has been appointed the outsourcing service provider for visa, passport, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), and attestatio

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Douglas Devananda, secretary general of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), said on Saturday that Sri Lanka's Tamil people should not expect any government in the country's south to voluntarily grant a political settlement, arguing instead that Tamils must create the conditions necessary to secure their own political rights. Mr. Devananda made the remarks during a meeting with key EPDP figures and party activists from the Nallur electorate. "No government that comes

COLOMBO — China's ambassador to Sri Lanka on Friday used a forum marking the release of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" to press for deeper economic and political cooperation between the two countries, a year before they are to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Speaking at the China-Sri Lanka Readers Forum at the Hilton Colombo, Ambassador Qi Zhenhong described the volume as an authoritative compilation of President Xi Jinping's latest thinking and sai

By: Asela Kuruluwansha COLOMBO — Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Saturday that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) would choose its next presidential candidate based on public demand, adding that the party would not nominate his son, Namal Rajapaksa, unless the people wanted him to contest. "If the people do not ask for Namal, we are not prepared to make him the presidential candidate," Mr. Rajapaksa told reporters after paying homage at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Ka

COLOMBO — The arrest on Friday of Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda on corruption allegations, followed by his release on bail later the same day, has renewed questions among many Sri Lankan Tamils, human rights advocates and families of the disappeared, not over the decision to arrest him in the corruption case, but over why he has never been taken into custody in connection with the long-running investigation into the disappearance of eleven civilians during the final stages of Sri Lan

VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan court has temporarily blocked the Northern Province governor from enforcing his decision to remove the elected mayor of Vavuniya, setting off a broader constitutional dispute over the powers of unelected governors in the absence of provincial councils. The Vavuniya High Court on Friday granted interim relief suspending a Gazette notification issued by Northern Province Governor Nagalingam Vethanayahan, removing Vavuniya Municipal Council Mayor Sundaralingam Ka

COLOMBO — Addressing several hundred guests on the floodlit grounds of the United States Embassy on Thursday evening, the senior American diplomat in Sri Lanka framed the 250th anniversary of American independence not around treaties or trade, but around the movies. "Tonight, we celebrate 250 years of American independence by honoring one of our nation's greatest gifts to the world — the art of cinema," said Jayne Howell, the chargé d'affaires who has run the embassy since January. For more th

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption commission arrested a former navy commander, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, on Friday over the 2006 recruitment of a son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa into the navy and his subsequent officer training in Britain at state expense, deepening an inquiry into how the country’s most powerful political family bent state institutions to its purposes. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, known as CIABOC,