Jaishankar meets Sri Lanka's President, PM; assures support

Colombo: Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has visited Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday. He assured both India's continued support during the island nation's unprecedented economic crisis, PTI reported.

Lankan President took Twitter that he is grateful for the Indian government's assistance provided through the line of credit.

Jaishankar virtually inaugurated the Jaffna Cultural Centre constructed by India. Jaishankar tweeted that after discussions with the Lankan PM, he witnessed the signing of the agreement on supporting Buddhist culture and heritage. He also toured an ongoing camp in Jaffna on fitting 'Jaipur Foot', he said. Jaipur Foot is a prosthetic leg for people with below-knee amputations. The Indian minister also visited India's Information Technology services giant, HCL Technologies and after Lankan Cabinet Minister of Youth and Sports Namal Rajapaksa.

He had met Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa earlier on Monday and discussed the country's ongoing foreign exchange crisis.

Sri Lanka is under the pressure of an acute economic and energy crisis sparked by the shortage of foreign exchange. Recently, India had announced a one billion dollar line of credit to Sri Lanka for it to deal with the situation. In February, India had provided the country with a 500 million dollars line of credit to purchase petroleum products.

The Indian minister visited Sri Lanka when public outrage poured out over the inefficiency of the Lankan administration in handling the severe crisis, came to out in the open.

Citizens are holding protests over the crisis, demanding immediate solutions since they face long queues at fuel stations, long hours of power cuts and sudden rises in the prices of essentials. The situation had caused import restrictions which further affected the supply of essentials.