Latest news with #Wickremesinghe
The Hindu
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Watch: The new forces shaping subcontinental geopolitics
Former president and prime minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe has mooted the idea of India taking a lead in ensuring the emergence of South Asia as the 'most powerful region'. Participating in a session titled 'In the hood: The new forces shaping subcontinental geopolitics' at the fifth edition of The Hindu Huddle organised by The Hindu Group, in Bengaluru, Mr. Wickremesinghe observed that the South Asian region would account for a population size of 2.7 billion in the total world population of 9.8 billion while its combined economy would be around 43 billion dollars. T. S. Tirumurti, former permanent representative of India to the United Nations, said India should take a geopolitical role that goes beyond the sub-continent. The sooner we do it, he said, the more important it will be. The session was hosted by Suhasini Haidar, The Hindu's Diplomatic Affairs editor. Read more: Ranil Wickremesinghe moots idea of India taking a lead in ensuring emergence of South Asia as most powerful region
The Hindu
10-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
The Hindu Huddle 2025: Ranil Wickremesinghe moots idea of India taking a lead in ensuring emergence of South Asia as most powerful region
Maintaining that 'regionalism' is going to be important in the emerging world order, former president and prime minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe has mooted the idea of India taking a lead in ensuring the emergence of South Asia as the 'most powerful region'. Participating in a session titled 'In the hood: The new forces shaping subcontinental geopolitics' at the fifth edition of The Hindu Huddle organised by The Hindu Group, in Bengaluru, Mr. Wickremesinghe observed that the South Asian region would account for a population size of 2.7 billion in the total world population of 9.8 billion while its combined economy would be around 43 billion dollars. 'You will have three nuclear powers in this region. This is going to be the most powerful region in the world,' he said, while adding a rider that: 'We can do so if get out of the traditional mindset.' The former Sri Lankan president said geopolitics was witnessing a great shift, while pointing out, 'We had a unipolar world at the end of the World War-II that later became bipolar (with USSR and US being major players) and then unipolar again. It is becoming bipolar again (with US and China being the major players).' He wondered if it could become tripolr by 2050 where US, China and India would be the major players, particularly with India expected to be the third biggest economy by then. Mr. Wickremesinghe observed that the South Asian region would be a larger commonwealth than British commonwealth and it had several common threads in terms of religion, culture, civilisation, literature and philosophy among other things. Referring to the present global scenario, he said: 'We are seeing a world in which US President Donald Trump has disrupted the WTO. He has challenged the global order made by the US itself. It is like a cat eating the kitten. We all look upto the US as the growth engine. But it is shaken now. So regionalism is going to be more and more important, he said, while stressing the need for emergence of South Asia as the powerful region under the leadership of India. Referring to the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, he argued that the transformation of economy should go on even amidst such issues. 'Development should go on despite terrorism as it is a phenomenon we need to live with,' he said. Welcoming such an idea, Mr. T. S. Tirumurti, former permanent representative of India to the United Nations, said: 'India should take a geopolitical role that goes beyond the sub-continent. The sooner we do it, the more important it will be.' Pointing out that democracy had become more stronger in the last 15 years in the South Asian region despite problems in a couple countries including Bangladesh, Mr. Tirumurti said the youth were playing a key role. This would help in the process of emergence of South Asia as the major regional power, he felt. Stating that security and geo politics are the two sides of the same coin, he argued that India needs to factor in security issues like conflict with Pakistan in its economic development. He stressed the need for India to become a net provider of prosperity to the region by opening up its economies to others. 'It is unrealistic for India to even talk of economic development without taking on the geo-political role or securing neighbourhood and being a net security provider not just for the neighbours, but for the larger region. Former National Security Advisor to India, M. K. Narayanan, too hailed the idea of South Asia becoming a powerful region as the single most important idea that he had heard in the last decade. Mr. N. Ram, director, The Hindu Group, observed that Mr. Wickremesinghe's vision for South Asia was full of hope. However, he expressed concern that, there were democratic deficits. Particularly referring to India, he said: 'There is a huge democratic deficit with India. The states are being attacked, Media is being intimidated. We have a serious problem of authoritarianism.' The Hindu Huddle 2025 is presented by Sami-Sabinsa Group Co-powered by: Government of Karnataka, Government of Telangana Associate Partners: ONGC, Presidency University, TAFE, Akshayakalpa Organic Energy Partner : Indian Oil Corporation Limited Realty partner: Casagrand Knowledge partner: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham State partner: Meghalaya tourism and Haryana government Luxury car partner: Toyota Radio partner: Radio City Gift partner: Anand Prakash Broadcast partner: Times Now Outdoor media partner: Signpost India
Al Jazeera
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on recent election loss, Easter bombing investigations, and prosecution of the Rajapaksa family
Former Sri Lankan President and six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe denied shielding ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa from prosecution, during an interview for Al Jazeera English's 'Head to Head' that aired today. He also rebuffed renewed accusations that his own administration failed to credibly investigate alleged government links to deadly terrorist attacks that rocked Sri Lanka in 2019. Wickremesinghe, who was voted out of office in 2024, threatened to leave 8 minutes into the hour-long interview with Mehdi Hasan, but ultimately remained seated for a heated debate that also covered the government's handling of war crimes investigations following the country's civil war, and allegations of torture committed under his watch in the late 1980s. 'In my country, it's the attorney general, who is not a political figure, who decides on prosecution - We can only send the evidence before him,' Wickremesinghe said when asked if he'd covered for ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country in 2022 following mass protests. Both Gotabaya and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former Prime Minister and President, have been widely accused of corruption and war crimes and driving the country into a major financial crisis. On letting Gotabaya Rajapaksa back into the country without arrest after Wickremesinghe took over the presidency in 2022, the latter said: 'He could come [back] in. There's no charge against him. How could I? Am I a dictator?' Hasan also pressed Wickremesinghe on renewed accusations by the Catholic Church that his own government had protected 'other forces' involved in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings carried out by an ISIS-affiliate. In response, Wickremesinghe called the allegations 'all nonsense' and an example of 'the politics of the Catholic Church.' 'The head of the Catholic Church [in Sri Lanka] is talking nonsense?' Hasan clarified. 'Yes,' Wickremesinghe said. Wickremesinghe, who was Prime Minister in 2019, was responding to public statements by local Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, as well as exclusive comments the Cardinal had made to Al Jazeera's Head to Head team before the TV recording. In a phone call with Al Jazeera, Ranjith said Wickremesinghe had failed to heed the Church's request for a truly independent investigation and called an earlier inquiry and report during Wickremesinghe's presidency "not worth the paper it was written on". Turning to truth and reconciliation for Sri Lanka's civil war with the LTTE (also known as the Tamil Tigers), Hasan asked if justice had been served to the thousands of victims of the conflict that ended in 2009. Wickremesinghe conceded: 'No. Justice has not been served to any of the communities.' He accepted that aid had been blocked to war victims and some hospitals had been bombed but denied that such bombings were systematic. 'There had been occasions where the Air Force had bombed [hospitals] and action was taken against some of them. But on a large-scale, this thing? I wouldn't say that.' 'According to a U.N. panel […], Sri Lankan government forces blocked the delivery of aid to victims of the war,' Hasan prompted. 'I admit that took place,' Wickremesinghe conceded, who was the opposition leader at the time of the final phase of the war. Pressed on why, as President, he reappointed General Shavendra Silva – whom the US State Department accuses of war crimes – to head Sri Lanka's armed forces, Wickremesinghe said, 'It's a practice not to replace military commanders during [an] election.' He added, 'When I took over, I checked on it and I was satisfied that General Silva was not involved in it.' Wickremesinghe went on to deny allegations made by a government commission that he knew of illegal detention, torture and killings happening at Batalanda, a housing complex he was living in as a minister in the late 1980s. 'I deny all those allegations,' he said when confronted with a government inquiry that named him as a "main architect" of securing the housing complex and alleged he, 'to say the least, knew' about the violations taking place there. Wickremesinghe first denied the existence of the report, of which Al Jazeera had obtained a copy, and later questioned its validity, saying it had never been discussed in parliament. 'That was not tabled in Parliament and there is nothing to be found against me.' Wickremesinghe, who was appointed president by parliament in 2022 amidst one of the biggest political and financial crises in Sri Lankan history, defended his own presidency and 2024 election loss: 'In two years, I put the economy back on track. And that means disinflation, compression. It's very, very difficult. Will you survive that? No, I can't see that,' he said about last year's election in which he finished third. 'I'm quite happy. I did the job,' he said, referring, in part, to a landmark IMF deal he brokered as president. 'There would have been a political and economic collapse of the country' (if he hadn't taken over the Presidency). Hasan and Wickremesinghe were joined by a panel of experts: Former BBC Sri Lanka correspondent and author of 'Still Counting the Dead', Frances Harrison; Former UK MP and envoy to Mr Wickremesinghe during his presidency, Nirj Deva; and Madura Rasaratnam, Executive Director of human rights organization PEARL and Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at City, University of London.
