New Delhi: Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has made an appeal to the Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka for helping hospital that has suspended surgeries due to lack of medicines. Jaishankar said that he felt extremely disturbed by reading a Lankan journalist’s tweet, stating suspension of surgeries.
“Scheduled surgeries at the Peradeniya Hospital were suspended due to a shortage of medicines. Only emergency surgeries are taking place – NewsFirst,” the journalist, Ayubovan, tweeted with the hashtag #EconomicCrisisLK.
Responding with hashtag #NeighbourhoodFirst, the Foreign Minister tweeted, “Disturbed to see this news. Am asking High Commissioner Baglay to contact and discuss how India can help.”
Jaishankar has directed the Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay to help Peradeniya Hospital. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar landed in Sri Lanka on Monday, March 28, to hold bilateral talks with Sri Lanka’s top leadership and attend the seven-nation Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit.
Sri Lanka is India’s maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region.
Currently Sri Lanka is facing an economic crisis. It is struggling to pay for essential imports of food and fuel after a 70% drop in foreign exchange reserves since January 2020 led to a currency devaluation and efforts to seek help from global lenders.
India has announced that it would extend a $ 1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka and will provide financial assistance. A $ 500 million line of credit has been extended by New Delhi to Colombo in February for purchasing petroleum products.
EAM Jaishankar called on Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who expressed his gratitude to India for extending financial assistance to the island nation to deal with its economic crisis.
In a statement, the Sri Lankan President’s office said, “Dr Jaishankar is in Sri Lanka to attend the 5th BIMSTEC Summit which begins today in Colombo.”
“Expressing pleasure over the visit of Dr Jaishankar, the President thanked India for providing a Credit Line of USD 1 billion for the importation of essential commodities including food and medicine,” the statement read.
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