Colombo: Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena praised New Delhi as a "close associate" and a "trusted friend" of Colombo and thanked it for providing the island nation with financial aid while it struggled through an unprecedented economic crisis last year.
Sri Lanka was hit by a catastrophic financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves. As the country struggled, locked in the throes of the crisis, India extended multi-pronged assistance of about USD 4 billion to it last year, through multiple credit lines and currency support, in line with India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy.
Abeywardena claimed that India "saved us" during the financial crisis and that without India, there would have been "another bloodbath for all of us" during his speech at the gala dinner reception held for the Indian Travel Congress members here.
"Sri Lanka and India are very, very closely interconnected countries, culturally, nationally, and policy-wise, and above all, India has been a very close associate and trustworthy friend of Sri Lanka," Abeywardena said, adding that when "we were in trouble", India always helped out. "And, even this time, today, I heard that India is willing to extend our restructuring of loans for 12 years. Never expected, and never in history, not a single country has extended that kind of assistance," he said.