You saved us, prevented massacre: Lankan chief thanks India for assist

By Press Trust of India: Expressing his gratitude to “trustworthy friend” India for saving Sri Lanka and stopping a “bloodbath” throughout its unprecedented financial disaster final yr, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has mentioned that not a single nation has prolonged that type of help to Colombo as achieved by New Delhi.

Sri Lanka was hit by a catastrophic monetary disaster in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, as a consequence of a extreme paucity of international trade reserves.

As the nation struggled, locked within the throes of the disaster, India prolonged multi-pronged help of about USD 4 billion to it final yr, via a number of credit score strains and foreign money assist, consistent with India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ coverage.

In his deal with on the gala dinner reception hosted for delegates of the Indian Travel Congress right here on Friday, Abeywardena mentioned India “saved us” in the course of the monetary disaster, in any other case, there would have been “another bloodbath for all of us”.

At the night reception, he thanked India for the assistance prolonged to the cash-strapped nation and recalled the civilisational ties and similarities between the 2 nations and their cultures.

“Sri Lanka and India are very, very closely interconnected countries, culturally, nationally, and policy-wise, and above all, India has been a very close associate and trustworthy friend of Sri Lanka,” Abeywardena mentioned, including that when “we were in trouble”, India all the time helped out.

“And, even this time, today, I heard that India is willing to extend our restructuring of loans for 12 years. Never expected, and never in history, not a single country has extended that kind of assistance,” he mentioned.

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He recalled the serving to hand lent by India in the course of the interval of hassle final yr that devastated the Sri Lankan financial system, pushing it right into a debt disaster.

“I must tell you, during the trouble that we had last year, you (India) saved us, India saved us otherwise, there would have been another bloodbath for all of us. So, that is how India came to help us,” Abeywardena mentioned.

He made the remarks within the presence of the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay, Sri Lanka’s Tourism and Lands Minister Harin Fernando, and different senior officers of the Sri Lankan authorities.

“Your ambassador here, (is a) very close friend of ours. We love and respect him,” the Speaker mentioned, referring to Baglay.

Later, in an interplay with PTI on the sidelines of the reception, Abeywardena mentioned, “India has always come to aid of Sri Lanka” in instances of crises, and laid emphasis on the monetary help given by New Delhi final yr when the island nation was mired within the financial turmoil.

“That helped us survive for six months in the midst of the crisis,” he mentioned

“We thank India for the kind gesture, and I also say, thank you, honourable Prime Minister of India (Narendra Modi),” he instructed PTI.

Noting the similarity between the Indian surname Singh and the Sri Lankan surname Singhe, Abeywardena mentioned, “It shows we are genetically connected to India”.

“That way, India is not a new country to us. It’s part of the ethos of our country, part of our life, part of our heart,” he mentioned, including, “We are here to receive you, respect you, join with you.”

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“Together, we (Sri Lanka) can join with you (India), without any difficulty or hesitation, with great trust,” the Speaker mentioned.

In his deal with, Tourism and Lands Minister Fernando pitched Sri Lanka — Pearl of the Indian Ocean — as a singular vacation spot for India and the remainder of the world, saying, “One island nation offers so many different tourist experiences, without travelling far from one location to another.”

Meanwhile, a number of classes had been held on Saturday as a part of the three-day 67th Convention of the TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India) which started right here on July 6.

The four-day conference of the TAAI which was established in 1951, is being held with the assist of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and the Sri Lankan Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO).