Recent months have seen India rapidly expand its footprint in Sri Lanka. Under the presidency of Ranil Wickremesinghe, a series of deals have reportedly been agreed, binding the two economically closer than they have been in decades. From New Delhi, things may look comfortable across the Palk Strait. But it would be hasty to think so. If it is a long-term relationship with a stable partner that India is seeking, it will not be found in Colombo where authoritarianism is growing and Sinhala Buddhist nationalism continues to underpin the Sri Lankan state ethos. Instead, it is in liberating the Tamil North-East where India’s efforts should be focused.

Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reform, Wijayadasa Rajapakse toured the Mantheevu islet, a part of Batticaloa this week to use the area to establish a new prison or a rehabilitation centre, purportedly to overcome Sri Lanka’s issue of overcrowding in prisons. 

Sri Lankan police prohibited Tamils from attending a monthly festival at a Hindu temple in Trincomalee. Police claimed that worship at the Kandasamimalai Murugan temple in Thennimaravadi was banned as the temple is located in an area that is clained to be a Buddhist archaeological site.

Three Tamil journalists, Prabhakaran Dilaksan, Sundarampillai Rajeskaran, and Chinnaiya Yogeswaran, were threatened by the Sri Lankan army as they attempted to cover the gathering of civilians visiting a temple within the 'High-Security Zone' in Palali Vasavilan, Jaffna. 

As part of high-profile diplomatic visit by Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, to Sri Lanka, two Iranian warships IRINS Bushehr and Tonb also docked at Colombo Port.

At a time when consumer confidence is at its lowest in Sri Lanka since receiving a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Donald Lu Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs claimed that "Sri Lanka was a great come back story".

Sri Lanka has exported tea worth US$20 million to Iran to partially repay its US$251 million oil debts

“So far $20 million worth of tea has been exported to Iran under the barter trade agreement,“ Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s office said in a statement after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Senior US officials, including the head of USAID, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka aired their concerns on Sri Lanka’s Online Safety Bill this week, a piece of legislation that has come under criticism for threatening freedom of expression online.

India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santhosh Jha met with several Tamil political leaders during his first visit to Jaffna this week, where issues ranging from land grabs to fishing were discussed.

Tamils in Nochikulam launched a protest on Tuesday after a farmer survived being shot at, in what locals describe as the latest in repeated incidents of targeted gun violence.

Residents of Nochikulam blocked the Mannar-Medawachchiya main road, along Uyilankulam – Nochikulam.

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The Sri Lankan army has granted conditional access to seven temples out of 21 located within the high-security zone in Jaffna, mandating worshippers must use army transportation and provide their home address to reach the temples. 

TNA MP Nirmalanthan has opposed plans by the Sri Lanka Intelligence Service to build an office in Vavuniya.