Sri Lanka, a country immersed in an unprecedented economic crisis, has asked Russia for help to access fuel and resume tourist flights, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced on Wednesday.
The Sri Lankan president spoke with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to ask him to lend you the oil you needurgently, and, taking advantage of the opportunity, he also “humbly” requested that the flights between Moscow and Colombo.
“We agree that the strengthening of bilateral relations in sectors such as tourism, trade and culture is essential to strengthen the friendship between our two nationsRajapaksa said.
The United States and the European Union (EU) have imposed embargoes on Russian oil in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Sri Lanka shopped around 90,000 tons of Siberian oilin May, through a broker in Dubai, but acknowledged that he no longer had money in dollars to buy more.
For the past few months, the country has lived to the rhythm of daily power outages, fuel and food rationing, amid rampant inflation.
On the other hand, regarding tourism, Sri Lanka relies heavily on visitors from Russia and from Ukraine.
Several European countries, in addition to Australia and the United States, advised their citizens to avoid traveling to Sri Lanka, due to the worsening of the crisis, the worst since its independence in 1948.
Source: Observadora
