The Malaysian prime minister and his Sri Lankan counterpart agreed on Tuesday to start negotiations towards a Free Trade Agreement. 

Meeting with Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib, who was on an official visit to Sri Lanka agreed cooperation in the fields of technology, science and innovation, as well as the digitalisation of official documents. 

Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Tilak Marapana met with the deputy foreign minister of Malaysia, Dato Sri Reezal Merican, with both representatives signing a Memorandum Of Understanding on field training of diplomats. 
 

The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena said this week that he was not convinced by some of the suggestions for appointments to top posts made by the Constitutional Council. 

Local media reported that when questioned about differences in opinion between Council members and himself, he was very reluctant to talk, but acknowledged that he did not always agree with them. 

The Malaysian government is to send a mission to Jaffna in order conduct an assessment to see what assistance is required. 

The announcement came as the Malaysian prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak visited Sri Lanka, and met with the chief minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran. 

"Had a very fruitful meeting with His Excellency C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of Sri Lanka's Northern Province. We have agreed to work together towards supporting the redevelopment of the province and uplifting the Tamil community there," Mr Najib tweeted. 

Moody's Investors Service said that Sri Lanka’s government liquidity and external vulnerability risks will remain elevated and that it would continue to face “material credit challenges” ahead, in a report published this week.

The report on Sri Lanka’s fiscal reforms, stated that in particular “persistently high government liquidity and external vulnerability risks will maintain pressure on the sovereign's credit profile, as large external payments come due in 2019-2022”.

“High general government debt levels, very low debt affordability, and fragile external payments position continue to present the sovereign with material credit challenges,” the report added.

Sri Lanka’s Election Commission announced that Local Government elections across the island will be held on February 10^th, 2018.

Chairman of the Commission Mahinda Deshapriya announced that the date would be the same for all 341 councils across the island at a media briefing on Monday.

Whilst nominations have closed for 93 local government bodies, a further are accepting nominations until 21 December. Amended elections laws mean that the number of local government bodies increased from 336 to 341 while the number of councilors will increase from 4,486 to 8,356. At least 24 percent of all fielded candidates by a political party or group must also be female.

A widely criticised Sri Lankan army food festival failed to draw local crowds in Jaffna.

The Sri Lankan navy concluded a military exercise in Trincomalee this week, held in order to “improve preparedness for an array of terrorist attacks”.

British parliamentarians have called on Sri Lanka to release a list of all those who surrendered or were detained by the security forces during and after the armed conflict, in a message of support with families of the disappeared, as their protest passes 300 days.

The international community should demand Sri Lanka to investigate enforced disappearances and prosecute those responsible writes journalist J S Tissainayagam in a piece for Asian Correspondent.

“Sri Lanka’s responses to questions on accountability for rights violations at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in November were evasive and packed with clichés,” said Mr Tissainayagam.

The Sri Lankan state’s failure to release coastal land in Trincomalee has meant that many of the district’s fishing communities remain displaced and struggle to carry out their livelihood.

Representatives of Tamil fishing communities across the district met to discuss the ongoing challenges at a meeting of the Trincomalee District Fishing Association on Saturday.

Residents of several villages stated that their homes and livelihood lands remained occupied by the state, including Soodaikuda, Ilankanthai, Veeramanagar, 10th Kurichi and Thirukadalur.