Sri Lanka Speaker thanks 'trustworthy friend' India for economic assistance

The Speaker of Sri Lanka’s Parliament has expressed his gratitude to “trustworthy friend” India for massively coming to the aid of his country when it was drowned in an unprecedented economic crisis last year.

If New Delhi had not helped Colombo the way it did, the situation in Sri Lanka would have triggered a “bloodbath”, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in Colombo on Friday (July 7).

No other country helped Sri Lanka the way India did, he told a dinner reception hosted for delegates of the Indian Travel Congress.

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Sri Lanka was hit last year by unprecedented shortages for the first time since independence from Britain in 1948. India extended multi-pronged assistance of about USD 4 billion to it last year.

The crisis triggered a mass revolt which forced then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.

Thanking India, he recalled the civilisational ties and similarities between the two countries and their cultures.

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Interlinked countries

“Sri Lanka and India are very, very closely interconnected countries, culturally, nationally, and policy-wise, and above all, India has been a very close associate and trustworthy friend of Sri Lanka,” Abeywardena said.

“And today, I heard that India is willing to extend our restructuring of loans for 12 years. Never expected, and never in history, not a single country has extended that kind of assistance.”

He said the Indian assistance had helped Sri Lanka to meet its debt crisis.

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He made the remarks in the presence of the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay, Sri Lanka’s Tourism and Lands Minister Harin Fernando, and senior officials of the Sri Lankan government.

Later, in an interaction with PTI on the sidelines of the reception, Abeywardena said the Indian assistance “helped us survive for six months in the midst of the crisis”.

“We thank India for the kind gesture, and I also say, thank you, honourable Prime Minister of India (Narendra Modi),” the Speaker said.

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In his address, Tourism and Lands Minister Fernando pitched Sri Lanka as a unique destination for India and the rest of the world.

(With agency inputs)