Sri Lanka is currently facing the worst economic crisis in history. India is continuously providing assistance to its neighboring country to overcome the crisis. In this vein, once again India reiterated its willingness to play its role in supporting Sri Lanka’s efforts to tide over these difficult times.The opening ceremony of the Construction, Power and Energy Expo 2023 took place in Colombo on Friday. India’s Deputy High Commissioner Vinod K Jacob said that the recent years have strengthened India-Sri Lanka friendship and all-round cooperation.He said that if anyone came first to help Sri Lanka financially, it was India. In January this year, India was the first country to submit its letter of support to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financing and debt restructuring of Sri Lanka. He said that India will continue to play a constructive role as co-chair of the Creditor Committee with Japan and the Paris Club.
In May this year, 17 creditor countries formed an official creditor committee co-chaired by India, Japan and France to discuss Sri Lanka’s request to settle the debt. The Paris Club is a group of officials from major creditor countries whose task is to find a permanent solution to the payment difficulties faced by the creditor countries.
Jacob said that India’s financial and humanitarian assistance of $4 billion to Sri Lanka is more than the total fund facility of the IMF.Significantly, Sri Lanka was hit by its worst economic crisis last year due to severe shortage of foreign exchange reserves. For the first time after independence from Britain in 1948, the country is going through the worst situation. In such a situation, India provided assistance of about $ 4 billion last year in line with its Neighborhood First policy.Jacob said that the last three years have demonstrated the close ties between the people of India and Sri Lanka. The successful visit of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Sri Lanka in January this year has opened avenues for further cooperation through investments in boosting infrastructure, manufacturing and connectivity.He said that India was the largest trading partner of Sri Lanka in 2022. Sri Lanka’s exports to India have also increased. Sri Lanka’s economy is further supported by the use of the rupee for trade settlement. These are concrete steps to help Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and development. He said India was once again the largest source of tourists for Sri Lanka with over one lakh tourists last year. One out of every five to six tourists in Sri Lanka is an Indian.
