RPT - Sri Lanka In Talks With Russia On Loan For Fuel Purchase - Ambassador

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th February, 2023) Sri Lanka and Russia are negotiating a loan for fuel purchase and Colombo is waiting for Moscow's decision, Sri Lankan Ambassador to Moscow Janita Liyanage told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"Actually, Russia is a very friendly country with Sri Lanka. And we got help from Russia during our difficult times earlier. Russia has given us a credit loan for the war (civil war in Sri Lanka), during our conflicts, and they helped us in many ways. And in a similar way, our president (former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa) ... requested credit loan ... for fuel from Russia. And still we are continuing the discussions," Liyanage said.

The former president's request is still relevant and Sri Lanka is waiting for Moscow's decision, the diplomat added.

She also noted that Sri Lanka was slowly recovering from the fuel and Currency crises which hit the country last summer.

In 2022, Sri Lanka experienced its worst economic crisis since the country gained independence in 1948. The crisis was caused by a shortage of foreign exchange resulting from decrease of the tourist flow due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions. It left the country unable to buy enough fuel, with people facing acute scarcity of food and basic necessities, heating fuel, and gas. Many regions had power outages.

On July 6, 2022, Rajapaksa appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide Sri Lanka a loan to buy oil from Russia to ease the fuel crisis in the country.