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Colombo. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that India helped his country more than China, while they were going through a major economic crisis. Wickremesinghe was made the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka amid high inflation and the resulting protests in the country. The Sri Lankan PM said that when it came to helping Sri Lanka, the rampant red tape created a hindrance in China and that is why he focused more on talks with India.
Wickremesinghe said, “China helped in some ways, but major arrangements could not be made because we had focused on India. I don’t think we could have got much from China and Japan during that time. We decided to focus on India and it is not Colombo’s fault as India brought money. And that’s what we wanted. The question is, who had less red tape here.”
‘Will talk to PM Modi and thank him’
He further said, “I am talking to other ministers of India. I will also talk to PM (Narendra) Modi. I have been in touch with the Finance and Foreign Ministers. I have spoken to S Jaishankar even before the crisis, when we met in Abu Dhabi. We had a long conversation there and I told him that there would be a crisis. Will talk to PM Modi and thank him for his help.”
‘I don’t think China has betrayed Sri Lanka’
Giving importance to India, Wickremesinghe also did not delay in stating that the Sri Lankan government does not believe that China betrayed them during difficult times and made it clear that he would talk to China about a donor conference aimed at ‘ Sri Lanka’s Reconstruction and Development. He said, ‘I don’t think China has betrayed Sri Lanka. Well, I think actually we should have talked to them (China), but we didn’t. I don’t understand why we didn’t. We have just made a request.”
Sri Lanka on the verge of bankruptcy
Sri Lanka is currently facing a serious economic crisis and is on the verge of bankruptcy. People in the island country are currently facing acute shortage of food, fuel, medicines and from cooking gas to matches.
