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Belt Road Initiative and Indo-Pacific Policy

Factum Perspective: When Caracas Echoes in Taipei 

By Gargi Wickramasinghe  Shockwaves rippled across Caracas, when news broke of Operation Absolute Resolve. But the tremor did not stay there. It began travelling outward, across the Caribbean and the Pacific until it hit perhaps the most precarious geopolitical fault line in our region: the Taiwan Strait.  The United States had demonstrated in the starkest possible way, that when it believes its strategic interests are at stake, it will act unilaterally, without waiting…

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Factum Special Perspective: Venezuela and the Future of the BRI in Latin America

By Shiran Illanperuma  For Venezuelans, the new year began with the US illegally bombing its civilian infrastructure and kidnapping democratically elected President Nicholas Maduro and First Lady Cillian Flores.  Hours before the attack, President Maduro met with a Chinese delegation sent by President Xi Jinping. This delegation included Special Envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean Qiu Xiaoqi, Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Latin…

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Factum Perspective: Navigating China’s Role – Fostering the Blue Dragon Strategy in the Indo Pacific Region

By Kividi Koralage The Indo-Pacific region is an expansive and strategically significant area that stretches from the eastern coast of Africa, across the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean, and extends to the western and central Pacific Ocean. This region encompasses a diverse array of countries, including those in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia…

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Factum Special Perspective: Tempting Escalation – After Operation Sindoor

By Uditha Devapriya With India and Pakistan baying for each other’s blood and the media in both countries, and particularly in India, beating war drums, it would be futile to expect a lessening of tensions overnight. The problem is that this is not the world of 2016 or 2019: when disputes between the two countries…

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Factum Perspective: Decolonisation Delayed – The Ongoing Struggle for the Chagos Islands

By Hannes Romare Exclusive to Factum from EPIS Thinktank on Foreign and Security Policy The Chagos Islands, or The British Indian Ocean Territory? Is the Chagos archipelago a part of Mauritius or does it belong to the United Kingdom? These questions will soon get a definite answer as a deal on the status of the…

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Factum Perspective: Sri Lanka Foreign Policy 2025 – Laying Low and Continuing the Balancing Act

By Sachintha Pilapitiya Sri Lanka has often stressed its principle of "friendship towards all, enmity towards none" in its diplomacy. In 2024, under two ideologically contrasting governments, Sri Lanka reflected the possibility of maintaining this foreign policy goal intact. In this article, I conduct a short review of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy in 2024, followed…

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Factum Special Perspective: China’s role in global transformation

By Vinod Moonesinghe We bear witness to a period of accelerated global transformation, with the rise of the East and the relative decline of the West reshaping the global political and economic landscape, benefitting the Global South. China, whose rapid economic growth and expanding influence play a pivotal role in this new era of global…

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Factum Perspective: The Indo-Canada spat

By Aavin Abeydeera In September this year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the Canadian House of Commons. His speech included statements that went on to spark one of the most consequential diplomatic crises in the world today. Trudeau essentially accused Indian intelligence of being behind the assassination of one Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a…

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Factum Perspective: The President in New York

By Uditha Devapriya The last week has been very busy for President Ranil Wickremesinghe. First he travelled to Cuba, in time for the G77 Plus China Heads of State Summit in Havana from September 15 to 16. Largely dismissed by the Western press, the Summit saw the participation of delegations from more than a…

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Factum Perspective: The BRICS, SCO, and the emerging Multipolar order

By Shakthi de Silva Of late, headlines have been dominated by news of the BRICS deciding, at its 15th Summit in Johannesburg, to add six new members from 2024. The news should not necessarily come as a surprise, as the original members, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, agreed during the 14th BRICS…

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Factum Special Perspective: Sri Lanka’s trilemma

By Uditha Devapriya Sri Lanka’s future lies in its ability to balance the three great powers in – and not of – the Indian Ocean: India, China, and the US, and in that order. Its dilemma has something to do with it being a small state, but more importantly with it being a small state…

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Factum Perspective: Ranil Wickremesinghe’s mission to New Delhi

By Uditha Devapriya On July 2 and 3, Factum held its first Ambassadors’ Day at the Kataragama Esala Perahera. The event was attended by the Bangladeshi High Commissioner and the First Secretary to the Maldivian High Commission on the first day, and the Thai Ambassador on the second, which coincided with the final night of…

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