Austria has pledged to assist Sri Lanka in removing the European Union’s ban on fishery exports and regain the GSP+ trade concession reports Colombo Page.

President Sirisena who arrived in Vienna for a two day visit on Friday, met with Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

The two counterparts agreed to increase economic cooperation and with the Austrian president pledging to help Sri Lanka regain GSP+ trade concession from the EU.

Sri Lanka and Germany agreed to strengthen bilateral relations by signing an array of agreements that covered education, language, museology, heritage and art conservation, higher education and sports, reports Colombo Page.

The two sides also agreed to foster and improve the volume of Sri Lanka’s exports to Germany.
The agreement followed President Sirisena’s visit to Berlin.

In the run-up to his visit Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany alleged that the nation would initiate a resolution to support the reinstatement of the GSP+ trade concession to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe reiterating his commitment to signing a trade agreement with India called any one that opposed it a ‘traitor.’

Speaking to reporters in Hambantota, Sri Lanka’s prime minister said,

“I will tell you one thing. We will take this agreement forward. We have a majority in parliament.”

The prime minister has faced strong opposition to signing a bi-lateral trade agreement with India and enhancing further trade ties with the neighbouring nation.

India framework agreement not finalised says Sri Lanka minister (25 Jan 2016)

Sri Lanka to finalise India trade agreement by mid-2016 announces ministry (30 Dec 2015)

See our editorial:

Sri Lanka’s Indophobia (07 Aug 2015)

A World Bank Report entitled ‘Sri Lanka: Ending Poverty and Promoting Shared Prosperity’ found that the Tamil North-East stood out as regions with high concentrations of poverty.

The report found that Sri Lanka’s Tamils “had the highest rates of poverty among ethnic groups,” with double the poverty rate of the ethnic Sinhala community on the island.

A Northern Province councillor with the Tamil National Alliance was attacked in Vavuniya by unidentified assailants on Thursday night.

Ramanathan Indrarajah, a councillor for he Vavuniya district, was on his way home on a motorcycle, ridden by NPC Councillor Pichchaimuththu Nadarajah, when the assailants rode up to them and hit the councillor on the back of his head with a metal bat.

A resolution passed by members of the Northern Provincial Council as well as Sri Lankan government representatives on Thursday called for the urgent resettlement of displaced persons in Valikaamam North who have remained displaced for over 25 years.

The resolution was adopted at an emergency meeting held at the Jaffna District Secretariat on Thursday, which included the chief minister of the northern province, C V Wigneswaran, the state minister of children's affairs. Vijayakala Maheswaran, the northern provincial council chairman, C V K Sivagnanam.

The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), a constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was taken to Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Thursday, over charges of espousing ‘separatism’.

The Supreme Court heard a petition filed against the Secretary General of the party, Mavai S. Senathirajah, claiming that since the ITAK constitution did not explicitly reject a separate state for the Tamil people, it was supporting separatism. TNA MP M. A. Sumanthiran appeared for Mr Senathirajah.