In New Delhi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda to discuss how to deal with the island nation’s economic difficulties.
“Following his meeting in mid-April, High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda met with India’s Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today (27) to examine the status of ongoing economic cooperation and to discuss the way forward,” the Sri Lankan Embassy in India wrote on Twitter.
On Friday, the 37th Board Meeting of the India-Sri Lanka Foundation was conducted in New Delhi, co-chaired by Moragoda and India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay.
Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its biggest economic crisis since its 1948 independence. Foreign exchange problems caused by a tourism ban during the COVID-19 pandemic are blamed for the slump.
It left the country unable to purchase adequate gasoline, causing a severe shortage of food and other commodities, as well as fuel and gas.
In February, New Delhi gave Colombo a USD 500 million short-term credit for the purchase of petroleum products on behalf of the Sri Lankan government through the Ministry of Energy and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.
Sri Lanka received 100 tonnes of nano nitrogen liquid fertilizers from India in November 2021, after their government banned the import of chemical fertilizers.
Over the last 50 days, almost 200,000 MT of petroleum has been given to the people of Sri Lanka, including a cargo of 40,000 MT delivered by Indian Oil Corporation outside the line of credit arrangement in February 2022. Energy Minister Gamini Lokuge expressed gratitude to the Indian government for the petroleum shipments.
India has established a new USD 1 billion credit line for Sri Lanka to support the island nation’s ailing economy. New Delhi also provided Colombo with a stock of 11,000 MT of rice.
