The Colombo Port City Project is a significant and arguably among Sri Lanka’s most controversial infrastructure projects. Initiated by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa with a vision to rejuvenate Sri Lanka’s stagnant economy, the project is worth about $1.4 billion. The Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa officially launched the port […]
The Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) plan for shared economic cooperation was announced in September 2014 when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Dhaka. This marked a new era in Japan-Bangladesh relations as both countries moved towards enhanced economic relations. 1 Japan has committed to provide a loan of approximately USD 5 billion to […]
China and Iran recently concluded a deal on developing Abadan oil refinery, the largest oil refinery in Iran. In September 2016, the final agreement was reached between China’s Stateowned oil refinery SINOPEC and Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company. The deal comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Iran earlier in 2016. The visit occurred […]
On 4th September, the USS Firebolt, a coastal patrol boat, operating in the Persian Gulf was the subject of ‘harassment’ by seven Iranian boats operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN). This was preceded by a series of similar incidents in the week commencing 22nd August, which eventually led to the firing of […]
China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea and the verdict of the Hague based Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal have made international headlines. In the wake of these developments, China has recently testes its new undersea glider Haiyi7000 (“Sea Wing”), which is an unmanned Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). In July-August 2016, Haiyi-7000 was deployed […]
China and Russia conduct regular combined exercises under the military cooperation mechanism signed in 2005. A bilateral naval exercise in the South China Sea (SCS) was held in mid-September 2016. Since 2012, the two neighbours have held annual exercises, with this being the fifth in the series. The earlier exercises were held in the Yellow […]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, while delivering the inaugural address at the Indian Ocean Conference on 1st September 20161, called on the Indian Ocean countries to take the lead in determining ‘their own future’. He stressed on the need to craft an ‘Indian Ocean Order’ with accepted rules and arrangements that would guide interactions […]
The contemporary Maritime discourse on India US relations is highly skewed towards strategic issues led by the recent signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), and two other similar agreements are under active consideration by the two sides. Also, several other bilateral maritime agreementsr elating to technical arrangement for sharing of information on […]
On 29 August 2016, during the visit of the Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to Washington DC, India and the United States (US) signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). Essentially, LEMOA is only a ‘functional’ agreement ‘to account for’ the essential supplies and services that one country would provide (at its port or […]
The Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya – all situated on the east coast of Africa- in July this year. These maritime neighbours are connected by the Indian Ocean which has facilitated movement of people, trade, culture and ideas for centuries between India’s west coast and Africa’s east coast. India, […]
193 countries of the world unanimously adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development in the form of 17 indivisible Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015. These goals which succeeded the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 01 January 2016 will drive the world development agenda for the next 15 years. The first review of the […]
The 2016 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations report on State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture: Contributing to Food Security and Nutrition for All notes that the world per capita fish supply reached a new high of 20 kilograms. Further, the global fish production for human consumption has grown from 93.4 million […]