International Affairs

Germany has increased funding for demining in Sri Lanka, the German Embassy in Colombo announced. .

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a $ 9 billion vaccine initiative—the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX)—offering rapid and equitable support to its developing members as they procure and deliver effective and safe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says “vaccine nationalism” is on the rise as wealthier nations line up to buy millions of doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines at the expense of much poorer nations.

කලාපීය සහයෝගීතා රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය තාරක බාලසුරිය මැතිතුමා, 13 වැනි බාලි ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී සංසදය (BDF) අමතමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සහ කලාපයේ පුරවැසියන්ගේ සෞඛ්‍යය සහතික කිරීම සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දක්වන කැපවීම අවධාරණය කළේය. “ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය තහවුරු කිරීම: කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතය” යන මාතෘකාව යටතේ 2020 දෙසැම්බර් 10 වැනි දින පැවති අමාත්‍යවරුන්ගේ මණ්ඩලයේ දී එතුමා මේ බව පැවසීය. කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතය වැළැක්වීම හා එලෙස පවත්වාගෙන යාම පිණිස රටවල රාජ්‍ය ප්‍රතිපත්ති බෙදාහදා ගැනීම කෙරෙහි මෙම අමාත්‍යවරුන්ගේ මණ්ඩලය අවධානය යොමු කළේය.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says action and money are needed to ensure coronavirus vaccines are available around the world as Western nations approve them.

After nine hours of deliberation Thursday, a special panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for emergency use a coronavirus vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.

All South East Asian countries have taken concerted action to strengthen the delivery of noncommunicable disease (NCD) services at the primary level in line with the 2016 Colombo Declaration, WHO South East Asia Director Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh said yesterday.

European Union leaders say the most likely outcome after months of fractious haggling with London is that Britain will leave the bloc at the end of the year without a trade and security deal — an upshot that will have serious economic repercussions on both sides of the English Channel and could poison relations between the EU and the British for years to come.

සැලකිය යුතු ආසාත්මිකතා ඇති අය “ෆයිසර් / බයෝ එන්ටෙක්“ කොවිඩ් එන්නත ලබා නොගත යුතු බව බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ඖෂධ නියාමන ආයතනය පවසයි.

LONDON - Trade talks between Britain and the European Union continued into the night Saturday ahead of the latest make-or-break deadline, as the Royal Navy readied armed ships to patrol U.K. fishing waters in case of a no-deal Brexit.

The United States launched a new Rs. 3.6 billion ($ 19.5 million) initiative to help small businesses and economically empower Sri Lankan women.

Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay said India was ready to support Sri Lanka to get the Rajagala archaeological reserve declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The first coronavirus vaccine will begin arriving early Monday in U.S. states after the government approved a vaccine late Friday for emergency use as the COVID-19 death toll approached 300,000.

Sri Lanka’s second wave of COVID-19 pandemic is expected to worsen the contraction of the economy in 2020, the latest outlook on Asia by the multilateral lender ADB has warned.

GENEVA - Ahead of Human Rights Day on Thursday, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights warned that the politicization of the coronavirus pandemic was undermining a range of such rights, from economic, social and cultural rights to civil and political rights.

Norwegian Ambassador Trine Jøranli Eskedal and Deputy Head of Mission Hilde Berg-Hansen, called on WFP Sri Lanka Country Director Brenda Barton, for a joint celebration of WFP being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Ambassador of Cuba in Sri Lanka Juana Elena Ramos Rodriguez have discussed deepening cooperation between the two countries, a statement by the Foreign Ministry said.

LONDON - Scientists and doctors say the mass coronavirus vaccination campaign that started in Britain this week represents a major milestone in the fight against COVID-19, although big challenges remain in producing and distributing enough vaccines to end the global pandemic.