Sri Lanka: Prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa ready for discussion with protesters

Sri Lanka prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is ready for a discussion with the ‘Occupy Galle Face’ demonstrators as the agitation enters the fifth day, his office was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

According to reports, protesters have been organising rallies near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office as the country faces its worst-ever economic crisis, which has resulted in a shortage of basic necessities. In recent weeks, Sri Lanka has experienced its worst turmoil in decades, with rising calls for the Rajapaksa brothers to go.

On Tuesday, Colombo said it was suspending its repayment of foreign debt, including bonds and government-to-government borrowing. The island nation was still awaiting the completion of a loan restructuring program with the International Monetary Fund, reports said.

“Sri Lanka has had an unblemished record of external debt service since independence in 1948. Recent events, however, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from the hostilities in Ukraine, have so eroded Sri Lanka’s fiscal position that continued normal servicing of external public debt obligations has become impossible,” the ministry of finance was quoted as saying.