Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa will visit India soon for the signing of important deals on economic assistance to the crisis-hit country, Foreign Minister G L Peiris confirmed. Basit Rajapaksa, whose elder siblings are the country's president and prime minister, had earlier visited India in December last year and held talks with senior Indian officials.

The visit will be the fourth high-level visit by the officials of two countries in the last five months, indicating the improving relations which were earlier came under strain following the cancelation of the ECT deal in February last year. The renewed push in the bilateral ties came as the island country faces severe economic and forex crises and New Delhi came to its assistance, offering help over $2.4 billion to Colombo, and assuring the latter to take care of its energy and food security. 

On Basit’s last visit, Peiris said it “brought in many fruitful outcomes as we received USD 2.4 billion assistance from India as a result”. India’s intervention, he said, made a “positive and significant” impact on the country’s economic woes.

“The close integration of our economy with India would be very beneficial, one-third of our tourist arrivals are from India,” said Peiris who himself visited India last week, and called New Delhi a “true friend” who Sri Lankans can rely on at all times. [Read More]

With a severe forex crisis, the Sri Lankan government has been struggling to import fuel and other essentials. Over four hundred containers containing essential imports remain stuck at the Colombo International Port, because of payments issues. The government on Monday admitted, for the first time, the shortage of four essential items.

Several power plants are reporting a shortage of fuel, and the Central Electricity Commission (CEC) started implementing scheduled power cuts. On Tuesday, India provided 40,000 MT fuel to the Sri Lankan Energy Ministry.

During the upcoming visit of Basit Rajapaksa, New Delhi will likely sign a deal extending a $1 billion line of credit for the imports of food, essentials, and medicine. The assistance is part of the $1.5 billion economic assistance that External Affairs S Jaishankar had announced in January. [Read More]

(SAM)