New Delhi: Milinda Moragoda, Sri Lanka's high commissioner, praised India for providing the IMF with financial assurances and for supporting the island nation's efforts to restructure its debt, saying that if New Delhi had not acted quickly, the social consequences of the economic crisis would have been worse and that its support would have reduced any mistrust between the two nations.
Speaking to media, Moragoda said no other country would have helped Sri Lanka the way India did and that its external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s recent visit to Colombo, his third in the past 12 months, marked the entry of the bilateral relationship into a new phase. It also marked, he said, the beginning of Lanka’s economic recovery.
Jaishankar, who was in Colombo this month to show support for Sri Lanka, stated during his visit that New Delhi expected all bilateral creditors to be treated similarly and that India's financial pledges to the IMF were intended to open the way for Sri Lanka to go forward. Similar guarantees from China and Japan, two other significant bilateral lenders, are currently being sought by Sri Lanka.
Despite the fact that Beijing has written to Sri Lanka offering a two-year debt moratorium and assistance in securing the IMF's proposed $2.9 billion bailout package, reports from Colombo indicate that it is still unclear whether the international lender, unlike in the case with India, is satisfied with China's assurances. “The timing was very important. India’s support overall and the fact that it took the lead can be hailed as an example of India’s ‘neighbourhood first’ policy. There would have been more social fallout of the crisis otherwise,’’ said Moragoda.
