Canada's foreign minister, Stephane Dion who is currently visiting Sri Lanka met with the chief minister of the northern province, C V Wigneswaran on Friday.

On Thursday, Mr Dion met with the Tamil National Alliance leader, R Sampanthan, and spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran on Thursday to discuss progress on political solution.

Canada's foreign minister, Stephane Dion discussed international involvement in any accountability mechanism with the Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

"Spoke w/ @RW_UNP on int’l involvement in accountability processes, women in politics & regional issues," Mr Dion tweeted on Thursday evening.

The discussion comes after the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena reiterated his rejection of any foreign judges in any accountability mechanism.

The Canadian foreign minister on Thursday told the Sri Lankan government that "much remains to be accomplished" on the implementation of the UNHRC resolution.

Mr Stephane Dion, who is currently visiting Sri Lanka, was quoted by Colombo Page as saying at a press conference after a meeting with his counterpart, Mangala Samaraweera,

 

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said his government was looking to expand relations beyond Colombo and reach out to Jaffna, after signing a series of free trade agreements with Sri Lanka earlier this month.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was on an official three day visit to Singapore last week, where he signed “four Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), and a Joint Statement between the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore and the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade of Sri Lanka to launch negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement”, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prime Minister Loong though said his country wanted to go beyond Colombo, stating Sri Lanka can be a gateway “to the Indian Ocean region for Singapore companies”.

During a lunch held to mark Mr WIckremesinghe’s visit Mr Loong highlighted how “since the 19th century, Singapore’s small but vibrant Sri Lankan community has contributed significantly to our development”.

He went on to point out that “Jaffna Tamils in the Straits Settlements’ civil service helped to lay the foundation for Singapore’s administrative and government services”.

The report of the presidential commission investigating cases of missing persons in Sri Lanka, headed by Maxwell Paranagama is ready to be given to the president, Ceylon Today reported.

Mr Paranagama told the paper that he had written to the president, Maithripala Sirisena for a date and time to present the report.

Stating that the commission had received 20,000 complaints from the North-East, he reportedly told the paper, "about 4,500 complaints of those 20,000 are duplicate complaints."

Plainclothes police and Sri Lankan intelligence officers have been deployed at Jaffna University said a senior police official, following clashes between Sinhala and Tamil students at the campus last week.

Inspector General Pujitha Jayasundera told the Divaina that security in Jaffna would be maintained.

“In addition to officers in civvies, we have deployed a large number of officers within the Jaffna university,” he said.

He added that intelligence officers had also been deployed in order to provide “security to Sinhala students”.

This is the first instance of Sri Lankan police officials admitting to the use of plainclothes and intelligence officers at the campus reports JDS.