Sri Lanka’s prime minister told the Associated Press (AP) on Saturday that he may be forced to buy oil from Russia, at a time when the country faces an unprecedented economic crisis.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, finance minister and newly appointed prime minister, said he would seek other sources first but was open to buying more oil from Moscow. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several nations placed embargoes on Russian oil.
In an interview with the AP, Wickremesinghe also indicated that he is willing to accept more financial aid from China, despite the country’s mounting debt.
While acknowledging that the current situation in Sri Lanka is “of his own creation”, the prime minister stressed that the war in Ukraine has worsened the situation and that food shortages may persist until 2024.
Russia has also offered wheat to Sri Lanka, he noted.
Appointed for the sixth time as prime minister to deal with an economic crisis that has all but depleted the country’s foreign exchange reserves, Wickremesinghe took office after violent protests in May that forced his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to resign and seek safety at a naval base.
Sri Lanka is facing the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, with shortages of medicine, food and fuel.
The situation has been aggravated by the lack of international currency, which led the island to temporarily suspend, in April, the payment of the external debt, having begun to negotiate a possible financial rescue with the International Monetary Fund.
Source: Observadora
