India’s Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is set to visit Sri Lanka this weekend, in a trip aimed at promoting Indian business in the region.

Mr Jaishankar will be accompanied by a business delegation for the three-day trip, where he will meet with Sri Lankan businessmen and government officials.

However, Indian officials have reportedly reiterated that though his trip is aimed at promoting business, the foreign secretary will not be discussing the proposed Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with Sri Lanka, a wide ranging free trade deal that Delhi has been pursuing for years.

The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye highlighted the ongoing concerns facing the Tamil people in Sri Lanka in her statement concluding her visit to the island. 

Describing land, security-related detainees, and demilitarisation as the "most significant challenges relevant to the reconciliation process", Ms Izsák-Ndiaye said, "in all of my discussions in the northern and eastern parts of the country, where the Tamils and Muslims are concentrated, demilitarization, release of prisoners and issues of land return frequently and prominently featured."

Clashes between Tamil civilians and Navy personnel took place after a member of Sri Lanka’s Navy was caught trespassing a home in Mannar.

The clash happened after families in Arippu, Manner noticed a rise in theft and decided to set up a neighbourhood watch system to tackle the issue. The trespassing member of Sri Lanka’s Navy was captured by local villagers and held until the early hours of Wednesday morning, causing other Navy personnel to fire warning shots demanding the release of the captured soldier.

One villager told reporters,

The European Union will double its development aid to Sri Lanka over the next four years "in support of the government's reconciliation priorities" said a press release this week.

The assistance, totalling €210 million (approximately Rs. 34 billion) for the years up to 2020, will also be used to fund “the resettlement of Internally Displaced People, assisting transitional justice and building local government capacity, as well as supporting development in Sri Lanka's poorest areas”.

The first phase of a Chinese project to build a ‘Central Expressway’ in Sri Lanka has sharply increased by 12 million rupees, after the government failed to make savings on other projects reports the Sunday Times.

The Sri Lankan government is till currently in talks with China’s Exim Bank to fund the first phase of the expressway, which is a 37.1 km stretch from Kadawatha to Mirigama. However, the government’s failure to plan for a 12km viaduct and to make savings on the third phase of the project has led to a grand total of Rs. 158 billion or US$ 1.1 billion.

The Royal Borough of Kingston in the United Kingdom has officially twinned with Jaffna, after a signing ceremony in London on Tuesday.

Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran said the event was a "historic" occasion, as he addressed the ceremony attended by hundreds of locals.

His comments were echoed by Councillor Kevin Davis, who spoke of how Kingston has twinned with other cities around the world, such as in Korea and Germany, that have also suffered the "tragic loss" of war.

A Sri Lankan army major who was convicted of shooting dead a handcuffed LTTE cadre in 1998, was ordered to pay Rs 2 million in compensation to the family after a High Court ruling, the Colombo Page reported. 

The now retired army major, Wimal Wickramage, who shot handcuffed Robert Velinthan who was under army custody at the time, as  was also given a suspended sentence of two years. 
 

The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye met with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan on Wednesday in the parliament complex in Colombo. 

The President of the European Council has backed the return of the GSP+ trade concessions for Sri Lanka, said Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Following a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Mr Wickremesinghe tweeted that Mr Tusk “greatly admired the sacrifices made by the government of Sri Lanka… to make Sri Lanka a democratic state, despite undergoing dictatorships, corruption and terror in the past”.

He went on to state that Mr Tusk “would give his fullest support to help Sri Lanka revive the GSP+ relief once more”.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has praised the current Sri Lankan president for speaking out against corrupt investigations into former military personnel.

“I am happy that the truth has finally dawned on the President about these things,” said Mr Rajapaksa in an interview to BBC Sinhala last week.

Mr Sirisena slammed government commissions investigating former military figures on charges of corruption as political stating "military commanders who led the successful campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 should not be humiliated in such a way".