RIYADH, 26 July 2022, (TON): Saudi Shoura Council Speaker Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Asheikh received the Deputy Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Furqat Sidiqov and his accompanying delegation on the sidelines of the politician’s visit to the Kingdom.

During the meeting, Al-Asheikh highlighted the historic links between the two countries and expressed hopes of further strengthening the bonds, especially cooperation between the Shoura Council and Uzbek parliament.

DHAKA, 26 July 2022, (TON): US Ambassador Peter Haas visited different US-supported activities at Rajshahi Metropolitan Police headquarters.

He flew to the northwest city in the morning beginning a three-day visit.

The ambassador exchanged views with senior police officials at the conference room of RMP Commissioner Md Abu Kalam Siddique.

The US Department of State Anti-Terrorism Assistance, under the supervision of the US Embassy, ​​Dhaka, has been imparting regular training to RMP's Cyber ​​Crime Unit and CRT members.

Meanwhile, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami met Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton.

DHAKA, 26 July 2022, (TON): Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has said “the gas and oil crises created by the Russia-Ukraine war is also hurting Bangladesh.”

Quader said “this after attending the cabinet meeting at the Secretariat.”

Replying to a question, Quader said that the ongoing fuel crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine war has turned into a global crisis.

Quader said “we don’t live on an isolated island. Any crisis that hits the global stage also impacts Bangladesh. I can’t say for sure whether the ongoing fuel crisis will escalate or not in the coming days.”

Quader added “people should be prepared in advance for any untoward situation.”

NEW DELHI, 26 July 2022, (TON): Several world leaders, including presidents of China, Russia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, have congratulated India's new president Droupadi Murmu who assumed office.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday congratulated President Murmu, 64, on assuming office, saying he stands ready to work with her to enhance political mutual trust, properly handle differences and push bilateral ties forward on the right track.

In his first communication to Indian leadership since April 2021, Xi pointed out that China and India are important neighbours of each other, and that a healthy and stable China-India relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people.

President Xi said “he attaches great importance to China-India relations, and stands ready to work with President Murmu to enhance political mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation, properly handle differences and push bilateral ties forward on the right track, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.”

DHAKA, 26 July 2022, (TON): An official document showed “the government is working to defend it from the allegations of rights violation and reap political benefit from the planned visit of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.”

Bachelet is scheduled to make her first visit to Bangladesh for four days from August 14 when she is expected to hold a series of meetings with the government officials and meet forcibly replaced  Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar.

Officials said “an inter-ministerial meeting, chaired by foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen, on July 21 discussed the issues related to the visit and the government’s preparation.”

A background paper shared in the meeting read “the visit of the UN HCHR is, above all, has strong political element. This is needed to provide high importance on this visit, so that we can reap benefit from it, and the possible risks are averted.”

The visit of the HCHR is particularly important in the context of the recent sanctions.

DHAKA, 26 July 2022, (TON): Bangladesh and India have reiterated their commitment to continue to work towards citizen-centric consular mechanisms.

Noting the unique friendship and special bond between the two countries, especially in this 50th anniversary year of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties, they agreed to further strengthen bilateral relations through easier and more extensive people-to-people exchanges.

The third Bangladesh-India Consular Dialogue was held on Monday in Dhaka that discussed the issues of mutual interest.

Ausaf Sayeed, secretary (CPV and OIA) led the Indian delegation, while the delegation from Bangladesh was led by Mashfee Binte Shams, secretary, MoFA, Bangladesh.

The consular dialogue mechanism was instituted in 2017 to discuss and improve consular, visa and mutual legal assistance cooperation between India and Bangladesh.

DHAKA, 26 July 2022, (TON): Bangladesh and Japan agreed to elevate the bilateral relations between the two friendly countries this year  to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations.

A press release said “this was discussed when the Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, HONDA Taro called on the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam, MP at the State Guest House Padma last evening.”

During the meeting, Alam recalled the historic visit of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to Japan in October 1973, which laid the foundation of today’s exemplary bilateral relations between the two countries.

He also recalled the visit of the then Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe to Bangladesh in 2014, when the two countries elevated the bilateral relationship to ‘Comprehensive Partnership’ level.

By Fatima Mushfika
The relationship between Sri Lanka and Pakistan is a long and dense history. Its beginning emerges with the independence from the exploitations of the foreigners who subjugated the respective territories. Quaid- I – Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah- the first governor-general and founder of Pakistan once reported that,
“Pakistan has the warmest goodwill towards Ceylon, and I am sanguine that the good feeling which exist between our two people will be further strengthened as the years roll by and our common interests, and mutual and reciprocal handling of them, will bring us into still closer friendship.”
These two countries belong to the South Asian region where they share bilateral relations. Today they convey a strong bond with each other. They have stood when in hard times and defended each other. Pakistan has supported Sri Lanka in encountering the separatist group – the LTTE. They have provided necessary military support and training including Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Pakistan has been an immense support in defeating the long waged civil war. Similarly, Sri Lanka as well, has engaged in counterterrorism activities in occasions that mandated an assistance to Pakistan. Even during the recent times when the ex-prime minister Imran Khan visited Colombo, he helped with the negotiation with the government which ultimately revoked the rules of the forced cremation of Covid -19 deaths- which was a huge burden and chaos at that period. Likewise, they also mutually agreed upon boosting tourism with each other. This essay shall share how Sri Lanka can boost tourism with Pakistan. Foremost, there shall be special attention on attractive and notable places which will draw the attention of respective tourists.
Prior to that, it is crucial to understand that both of these countries are labelled as developing countries. These nations also have significant ups and downs where they have shouldered one another. Tourism as such has been one aspect.
Tourism – in its simple definition is a voluntary movement of individuals and people outside their common territory (their country) for personal or commercial purposes. It’s effects on economy, culture and society are massive. In fact, it ensures the bond within these countries while also securing peace, safety and understanding of the differences. This is fundamental. The mode of travel between Sri Lanka and Pakistan is by air. Further, these countries attract each other with several beautiful places such as cultural and religious sites, beaches, and much more historical heritages. The tourists who visit each other places have a great sense of belongingness owing to the environment while enjoying several distinct places and sites. Sri Lanka is a Buddhist majority country while Pakistan on the other hand is a Muslim nation. Sri Lanka also is a multi-ethnic island. Recently, after Easter attack there has been a constructed racism which has brought a split within the two different ethnicities. At a time like this, when Pakistan strengthens their ties with Sri Lanka, this will ensure peace and harmony. It will also motivate people to pursue knowledge about their significant differences while providing a suitable environment for communication.
Regardless of Pakistan being a Muslim country, it exhibits ancient relics and architecture at Punjabi City that has Buddhist value. The Gandhara Art- a Buddhist oriented Art is a significant religious attraction to Sri Lankans. The ancient chief city – Taxila is known to be a vital cultural centre that attracts Sri Lankans even today.
Apart from the cultural significant place, Pakistan also holds picturesque places like the Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The place gives a surreal experience of panoramic views. The green land posses’ forests such as Ushu Forest which holistically contain deodar trees. Also, Pakistan has number of beautiful places and villages like Hunza. Here there are multiple scenic places that satisfies your eyes and soul. Passu Cones, Attabad Lake, Eagles nest are some of them.
Further, Lahore is another important place of visit for any historical lovers. The Mughal art still persists as stimulating depiction. There are beautiful artistic mosques as well, such as Badshahi Mosque and Wazir Khan Mosque.
Also, tourists who desire to see a surrounding with different species of animals and birds can visit Hingol National Park. The visitors are expected have their own mode of transportation within the boundaries. In addition, the Deosai Plains National Park is another separate visiting destination of stunning plateau. This is one of the most famous places and said to be accessible during summer vacations.
Despite the listing given above there are several other stunning places of visit that deserves a mandatory visit to Pakistan. The country is full of various and different sites. It welcomes site-seekers, hikers and any tourist who is willing to enjoy the differences of culture with unique and outstanding places. Sri Lankans – with a predominant Buddhist population will definitely witness noble, magnanimous, and exceptionally unique places.
Similarly, Pakistanis as well, shall enjoy many significant places at Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka being a multi-cultural country contains different historical places. This includes places such as historical residences like Sigiriya the rock, Temple of the Tooth Relic that stands in the heart of Kandy, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and much more. It also exhibits many seas and beaches like Hikkaduwa, Galle Face Green, Nilawali, Arugambay and so on. These sea views are the most notable and most desired destination by tourists. Each and every beach is uniquely different from one another and acknowledges different experiences.
More so, to witness the countryside charm- places like Ella, Riverston including Knuckles, Adams Peak are for significant mountain climbers. Sri Lanka is also a wonder island with many breathtaking places. There are world famous places that belong to world heritages as well. The Sinharaja forest is one among them and is a natural, tangible heritage.
Sri Lanka is a tourist destination, and it will definitely not disappoint the Pakistanis from enjoying a satisfying trip with multiple and divergent experiences.
Boosting the tourism industry
Overall, the two countries Sri Lanka and Pakistan are of outstanding and remarkable places that has several destinations to visit. It is in essence that both countries need to promote tourism to build healthy and strong ties. These nations have been in good relationship with each other. Likewise, it is compulsory of every individual to continue the goodness with utmost respect and comprehension. This can be credibly done by touring to the respective countries. This will ensure different experience such as enjoying cultural differences, enjoying the flavors of different cuisine and so forth.
Sri Lanka and Pakistan must initiate steps to boost the industry by highlighting their independent history and culture along with their unique experiences. They must also focus on places that draw attention of different interests. This will welcome tourists and also shall increase the percentage of their incoming into each other’s country. It is said that the percentage of tourism has likely have dropped massively in last years. This could be improved by strategic implementations towards tourism.
This brings us to the fact of creating job opportunities such as travel guiders by giving them professional trainings to improve the quality of guidance and similarities to have healthy conversations with tourists. It is compulsory that government focus more on providing a comfortable and a safe society to these incomers regardless of their differences from the locals. There also needs to have an awareness within the country ensuring a healthy and a hospitable relationship with the visitors.
Moreover, the best prospective places as afore mentioned need to be marketed. For this, we can invite famous youtubers who are bloggers and travelers to encourage visiting these countries. This will bring an exposure to the places which will further increase their number. In fact, this will promote a high revenue. We also need to remember that these two countries are lower-income country and hence need attractive remunerations and discounted plans to increase the percentage of the tourists. For instance, the government can initiate reliable websites to encourage tourists with proper guidance. This can include details of their charges, safety and comfort which are major expectations. Thus, it needs to be active and vibrant and needs to be constantly updated owing to any situation within the country.
Likewise, several strategic and diplomatic implementations can build the tourist industry between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, immensely. Let us promote tourism between these countries and secure the best of interests through building the tourist sector for unity and growth.

By TON Sri Lanka

The violent populist agitations cannot be the remedy for socio-political problems in any area of the world. Troublesome and fierce populist movements have undoubtedly recorded successes, finishing oppressive regimes and giving the voice to millions to express their dissent forcefully. However, in a long way these movements have been conveyed only partially and also temporarily.

The question that is in the minds of spectators of the “Sri Lankan Aragalaya movement” that will it go the way of similar movements in other countries in the past or will it have a durable constructive effect?

An analysis of the “Arab Spring” drive and the French revolution show that the chaotic conditions created by such movements have eventually, if not immediately, led to the establishment of dictatorships either of persons or clusters. They have also aroused primitive sentiments of ethnicity and religion. Despite loud claims about their efficacy, violent populist movements have not been a remedy for the ills of any civilization.

The “Arab Spring” which was an upsurge of pro-democracy demonstrations and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa in 2010 and 2011, collapsed popular governments in Tunisia and Egypt, inspiring similar movements in other Arab countries. Yemen saw a revolt in 2011–12, and Libya had a rebellion in 2011.

Nevertheless, the “Arab Spring” proved to be a failure eventually and that too, just quickly. Arab democracy appears further away nowadays than it was at any point in the previous 25 years in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Tunisia, and Yemen.

The aftershock of the Arab Spring went from a bloody civil war to a return of the ancient command. The period of hopefulness had proved strikingly unjustified. Prevalent revolutions are improbable to sweep away old dictators and usher in democracy. The tyrant's clamp down as in Syria, Bahrain or bide their time as in Egypt but they never vanish.

The Arab countries’ backing away from democracy to deep-rooted attachments of the people to their customary ethos and political organism, Islam and nationalism. People’s movements like the “Arab Spring” could end up resurgence feelings for the native culture, traditional customs, and religion. And, due to the instability created by a revolutionary mass movement, there could be a people’s desire for order, which, in turn, could lead to the rise to power of the military or the Islamic clergy. These could be sustained by the socio-economic selected whose power had been snatched away by the widespread people movement.

On July 14, 1789, in Paris, mobs stormed the Bastille, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The History of the French Revolution recalls that in 1780, a rampaging mob in London had set fire to buildings, causing several hundred deaths. In 1789, French King Louis XVI, facing an unprecedented financial crisis, hiked taxes. This triggered mass protests. Repression was unleashed. But that only triggered more protests.

The storming of the Bastille was a victory for the idea of representative government. It set a precedent: For the first time in modern history, ordinary men and women, through their collective action in the streets, ensured the creation of a constitutional system of democratic government.” However, “within a few years, the French Revolution would also show that crowds could be dangerous, even to governments that claimed to represent the will of the people.

Such protests were the order of the day in France for a long. On June 20, 1792, thousands of armed demonstrators attacked the French imperial palace, where they held the King hostage in his own home for hours. Fewer than two months later, on August 10, 1792, amid rumors that the King and queen were helping the foreign armies that were attacking France, armed battalions of the revolution’s citizen militia, the National Guard attacked the royal palace of the Tuileries.

The elected Assembly thus had no choice except to announce the finishing of the French monarchy. In the subsequent months, that Assembly itself was substituted by the National Convention, the first legislative body to be chosen.

However, even an assembly chosen by the people was not protected from the power of the crowd. From May 31 to June 2, 1793, National Guards and other members of the populace captured the meeting hall of the National Convention and forced the seconds-in-command to eject some of their members, safeguarding the victory of Maximillian Robespierre’s radical political group.

The new democratic constitution the deputies afterward passed proclaimed that when the government disrupts the rights of the people, insurgence is, for the people and every portion of the people, the holiest of rights and the most crucial of duties.

However, Robespierre was overthrown on July 27, 1794. When economic suffering touched its highest in early 1795, enormous demonstrations followed. This time, demonstrators wanted to bring back the kingdom. A young army general, Napoleon Bonaparte, played a crucial role in fighting off the attack. Four years later, he organized the overthrow that put him in power and gestured the conclusion of the French experiment with democracy. Therefore, the French uprising ended up making a military dictator like Napoleon Bonaparte.

More recently, Sri Lanka saw the attacking the houses and offices of President Go and the Prime Minister and the burning of the private residence of the Prime Minister. The uprising, called “Aragalaya” forced the President to flee and Prime Minister to resign. To that degree, it was a success. However, it cannot go beyond that to transform the system. This was because the movement lacked two things. The missing elements are a unified and credible leadership and another strategy to rule the country.

The unclear leadership had given way to radical elements which indulged in violence that had earlier rejected violent social justice movements led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in the early 1970s and late 1980s. As the language used by the activists was “bad-mannered and uncivilized” which was rather against the spirit of non-violence.

The State under the new President moved to restore law and order. On Thursday night Lankan troops forced the ousting of activists subjugating the Presidential Secretariat led to protests by human rights groups, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, and Western diplomats.

US Ambassador tweeted to say that we are deeply concerned about actions taken against protesters at Galle Face in the middle of the night and urge restraint by the authorities and immediate access to medical attention for those injured. The Canadian High Commissioner tweeted to say that it is crucial the authorities act with restraint and avoid violence.

Many things depend on how the “Aragalaya” activists and the government performs in the upcoming days. However, the most crucial factor is the reaction of the public regarding these events. That could determine the future of both the “government and the Aragalaya”.

CAIRO, 25 July 2022, (TON): The US special envoy for the Horn of Africa began a regional tour to resolve tensions caused by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Mike Hammer will hold talks in Egypt, the UAE and Ethiopia until Aug. 1, according to the US State Department.

The GERD has raised tensions between Ethiopia on one hand and Egypt and Sudan on the other.

The latter two countries are demanding a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam, which they fear will reduce their share of Nile waters.

Hammer’s regional tour coincides with that of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is visiting Egypt, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.