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Ranil Wickremesinghe, the 73-year-old leader of the United National Party, has been sworn in as the newpPrime minister of Sri Lanka, as the country is undergoing serious economic turmoil and financial instability. Taking charge as the 26th prime minister of Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe is now tasked with the huge responsibility of ending the country's debt traps and also ensure ending of violence to gain political equilibrium.
The Sri Lankan prime minister was referring to the Indian economic assistance to the island nation after it hit a giant economic crisis. He also thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed his wish to have stronger bilateral ties between the two nations, reported news agency PTI.
In the last three months, India has given Sri Lanka over 270,000 metric tonnes of diesel and petrol. This is in addition to the delivery of 100 tonnes of nano nitrogen liquid fertilisers, 11,000 MT of rice in January and 40,000 tonnes of rice, vegetables, and daily ration items to Colombo in March. The Reserve Bank of India has also extended a currency swap of $400 million to help Central Bank of Sri Lanka under the Asian Clearance Union.
Wickremesinghe took over as the prime minister of Sri Lanka after the nation was without a government in place since 9 May. Several cities across the country witnessed widespread violence and protest against the political Gotabaya family, which resulted in Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation. The anti-Gotabaya protests and the violence against Rajapaksa's loyalists left nine people dead and over 200 injured in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic emergency ever since independence from the British Empire in 1948. Experts have suggested that the economic depression is being caused by lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports, which further has led to acute shortages and very high inflation. Taking charge as the prime minister in this grave situation, Ranil Wickremesinghe said that he would allow the people to continue demonstrations near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's secretariat. However, he expressed his wish to talk with the protesters.
"If I can undertake the job to handle the economic crisis, then I will handle that (protests) too," he added, according to PTI.
The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has pushed citizens to hit the streets and protest against the ruling dispensation. Thousands of people, calling for political change and demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa are protesting in Colombo.
As a response to this, President Rajapaksa had imposed emergency across the country on 11 April for a period of five days. The government reimposed emergency once again on 6 May, after protests went violent in front of the parliament. The month-long ongoing protest across Sri Lanka also forced President Gotabaya's brother Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign as the prime minister.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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