External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will arrive here on Monday to hold bilateral talks with Sri Lanka’s top leadership and attend the seven-nation BIMSTEC summit, officials here said on Sundaꦕy.
This will be his first visit to the island nation since🌺 India extended an economic relief package to bail Sri Lanka out of the current economic crisis.
Although Jaishankar’s visit is primarily for the BIMSTEC engagements, the🧸 officials said that he would be taking part in all important bilateral talks with the Sri Lankan𒅌 leaders.
Besiꦕdes India and Sri Lanka, the BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.
The summit is being hosted by Sri Lanka in its capacity as the chair of the grouping BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technic☂al and Economic Cooperation).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the virtual summit of the BIMSTEC grouping on March 30, which is expected to focus on expanding economic engagement among its member countrಞies.
The summit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is facing its all-time wo🐼rst 🧸foreign exchange crisis after the pandemic hit the island nation’s earnings from tourism and remittances.
India, since mid-January, has provided economic relief in tꦍhe form of currency swaps, deferred repayments and dedicated credit lines for the purchase of fuel and essential imports.
Jaishankar’s visit is taking place at a time when the public outrage over the Lankan government’s inefficiency in handling the crisis has come out in the open. People are holding protests and vigils urging immediate solutions to rid them of fuel and gas queues 🌃and enduring long hours of power cuts.
Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa saw Jaishankar as a helpful ally in his bid to tackle the issue at a time serious public anger has turned against the government - th💝ese come in the form of peaceful demo🔯nstrations urging not only President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to stand down but the whole Rajapaksa ruling family to resign for incompetency.
Although both the government and the Opposition leaders as well as economic analysts have by and lar📖ge appreciated India’s assistance, some concerns on India’s pre conditions if any for such aid have been raised.
In recent days, the Opposition as w♔ell as a section of the government allies have raised concerns over some of the newly-approved Indian pro🅰jects in the island nation.
Also, there are growing concerns on some of the post economic relief package engagements proposed with India൩.
The agreement to pr♓ovide a grant of USD 6 million for the establishment of a Maritime Rescue Coordinating Center in Sri Lanka and agreement for the implementation of the Sri Lanka Unified Digital Identity Framework are two prime examples of allegations of packs with India shrouded in secrecy.
The main Opposition raised these projects in Parliament, questioning their alleged lack of tr𝕴ansparency a✨nd pressed the government for answers.
The Indian assistance or its economic bailout package included USD 400 millౠion currency swaps, USD 500 million for fuel purchase, USD 1 billion for food and essentials and deferment of Asian Currency Unit payments of over USD 500 mil💟lion.
T🌳he best explanation for India’s assistance came from former 🤪prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“Indian assistance was because they feared there would be instability in Sri Lanka with civil unrest. India had never helped a country to this extent before,” he said during a discussion with an independent think꧃ tank, adding that Sri Lanka ought to be thankful to India for the assistance, although this assistance would only be sufficient for two mo♍re months.
There is a school of tho🍎ught that India has got involved with its neighbour not just to provide econ🐬omic relief.
“What we have is an economic crisis and a politic🉐al crisis,” Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the head of an independent think tank, said. Inte🅰restingly, a politically-influential senior Buddhist monk, Rev Elle Gunawansha, has urged in a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to come out with full details of the “deal with India ''.
Sri Lanka is facing an acute economic and energy crisis triggered due to shortage of foreign exchange. A sudden rise in prices of key commodities and fuel shortage forced tens of tho💃usands of people to queue for hours outside petrol filling stations. People are also facing long hours of power cuts daily.
All essentials༒ are in short supply due to import restrictions forced by the forex crisis.
India recently announced to extend a USD 1 billion 𒈔line of credit to Sri Lanka as part o🌠f its financial assistance to the country to deal with the economic crisis.
New Delhi had extended a USD 500 million line of credit to Colombo in February to help it purchase petrol🦩eum ﷽products.
