Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

While it is unclear if the government is considering joining the China­ led Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership , Colombo seems open to the idea. Located along one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, Sri Lanka is keen on developing the Colombo and Hambantota ports. A view of the East Container Terminal at the Colombo Port. | Photo Credit: Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka’s growing emphasis on tapping the emerging Asian market would make the China-led Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement seem an ideal forum to build trade ties in the region. But given the island nation’s current economic challenges and India’s decision to opt out of the formidable grouping, the road is far from easy for Sri Lanka, according to economists. Few would dispute Sri Lanka’s distinct advantage, thanks to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, along one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. “We must develop the [southern] Hambantota and Colombo Ports together with the ...

‘Erdogan’s support for a boycott of French goods a setback’. Representative image President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support for a boycott of French goods is a further setback to Turkey’s already stalled bid to join the EU, the European Commission said on Tuesday. “Calls for boycott of products of any member state are contrary to the spirit of these obligations and will take Turkey even further away from the European Union,” a spokesman said. Accession talks Turkey applied to join the then European Economic Community in 1987 and began formal accession negotiations to the European Union in 2005, but the talks are seen as effectively frozen. Protests erupted in several mainly-Muslim countries after President Emmanuel Macron defended a cartoonist’s right to caricature religious leaders in the wake of a French teacher’s murder. History teacher Samuel Paty was killed in the street on October 16 after a social media campaign criticised him for showing students cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed ...