Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has recently come out as a part of big news, in which he said that India’s assistance to Sri Lanka during the economic crisis has not only helped Sri Lanka but has also boosted India’s image. He said that when the world left Sri Lanka feeling helpless, India took a unique step and showed its determination to maintain cordial relations with Sri Lanka.
Commenting on the recent assistance extended by India to Sri Lanka at a critical time during the country’s most severe and unprecedented economic crisis, India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Addressing India at an event, Jaishankar said, ‘My first advice to you is, next time you want to go on a holiday, go to Sri Lanka and ask the people there what do they think about India? ” he told that the common citizen of Sri Lanka admires India a lot because when the rest of the world turned its back on Sri Lanka during the economic crisis, the only country that came forward was India.
“I visited Sri Lanka and saw firsthand the fuel queues and shortage of food and essential commodities. The only country that came forward at this time was India, at this time India has committed to provide US$ 4.5 billion in aid to Sri Lanka.” “He negotiated for a long time with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF should have been the one from where help should have come in the first place. The IMF package was less than US$3 billion,” he said, according to the viral video.
In early 2022, Sri Lankans faced power cuts and shortages of basics like fuel. The inflation rate increased to 50% per year. Petrol and diesel prices increased dramatically due to fuel shortages. With a serious problem of foreign exchange shortage, the Sri Lankan government announced that the country is facing its worst economic crisis. The country faced a balance of payments (BoP) problem and the depletion of foreign exchange reserves made the processing of essential goods more expensive.
