SINGAPORE Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, in an address to the Munich Conference on Security Policy, has said the new economic realities in Asia will also have long-term strategic and security implications.
And Asean, which lies at the heart of many multilateral groupings such as the Asean Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit and the Shangri-La Dialogue, was well placed to play a unique role in the evolving Asian security architecture.
26 Mar 2008: Daily Mirror
By Easwaran Rutnam
British Parliamentarian Dr. Liam Fox, who is also the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, is in the country to seek a political consensus between the government and opposition parties, following an invitation extended by the Foreign Ministry.
Dr. Fox will hold talks today with Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and peace secretariat head Dr. Rajiva Wijesinghe, as he attempts to repeat a 1997 feat where he mediated a political consensus known as ‘The Fox Agreement’ between the two main political parties.
The 1997 agreement formed an early part of the peace talks, which were subsequently taken up by the Norwegians before the political consensus broke down and violence escalated. The controversial figure, who was subsequently criticised by some groups for the role he played in Sri Lanka, was yesterday scheduled to hold talks with APRC Chairman Tissa Vitarana, the JHU, and the UNP (Democratic Group) leader Karu Jayasuriya. “Dr. Fox had accepted an invitation of Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to visit Sri Lanka and will undertake a programme of talks this week,” well informed sources said.
In comments just priors to embarking on his Sri Lankan visit, Dr. Fox had said the political situation in Sri Lanka had clearly changed considerably in a decade, not least with the advance of the JVP and the decision of so many senior UNP members to join the government.
“The military successes certainly seemed to have offered the Government an opportunity to show that they were able to begin reconstruction in the East in a way which would benefit all communities. Fulfilling that challenge is now the main test of the sincerity of the Government, and one which is hugely important in determining how Sri Lanka is perceived by the rest of the world,” Dr. Fox had further said, in a statement to the Sri Lankan High Commission in London, which was yet to be released to the media.
He had also noted that the recent local government elections, were a step in the right direction, though being questioned in some quarters, and that he looked forward to further progress being made in this process with the next step of the Provincial Council elections in the East, in May 2008.
“I have been impressed by the determination of the Sri Lanka Government to make genuine progress on a number of fronts and have accepted the Foreign Minister’s invitation to return to Colombo for further discussions. Ultimately, it is for the people of Sri Lanka to determine their own destiny, but sixty years on from Independence, there are still many friends who would go to great lengths to help in any way possible.”
In June 2007 Dr. Fox met Minister Bogollagama at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore where the latter had encouraged him to return to Sri Lanka after an absence of more than a decade, to see at first hand the political developments that had taken place.
Dr. Fox visited Colombo in November last year and met with a number of politicians of different political complexions and canvassed a wide range of opinions. He had given an undertaking to reflect on these views and to meet with further representatives in London.
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