Gotabaya Rajapaksa will also soon visit the United Arab Emirates to import fuel from the oil-rich Gulf country.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa will also soon visit the United Arab Emirates to import fuel from the oil-rich Gulf country.
Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to explore options to buy oil from Moscow, as Colombo looks diligently Make up for its dwindling fuel reserves Amid an unprecedented economic crisis, a minister has said.
Mr. Gotabaya will also be visiting UAE in the near future to import fuel from the oil-rich Gulf country.
On Monday, the Sri Lankan government announced that Only essential services will run from midnight to July 10 And all other operations will be temporarily suspended as the island nation of 22 million faces an acute fuel shortage.
“President Gotabaya has called on the Russian President to import fuel from Russia. On his visit to the UAE, news portal Economy Next quoted Mahindanand Aluthgamage, Minister of State for Power and Energy, and a close aide of the President, during a media briefing. Also plan to go. Tuesday.
economy of sri lanka It has virtually come to a standstill after the foreign exchange reserves to import fuel were exhausted.
In a tweet on Monday, Rajapaksa said he met Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Yuri Materia and discussed the country’s economic crisis due to severe shortage of foreign exchange reserves.
“Had a fruitful meeting with Russian Ambassador Yuri Materia yesterday. In this meeting, developing business opportunities as well as maintaining strong bilateral ties between our two countries were discussed extensively,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
Last month, Sri Lanka bought 90,000 tonnes of oil from Russia.
Sri Lanka’s Energy and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera left for Qatar on Monday to negotiate a long-term fuel supply agreement with the Gulf nation.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also Sri Lanka’s finance minister, has warned that the country will need up to $5 million to pay for its fuel imports.
consequently, schools are closed Further supplies have been diverted only to essential services for two weeks due to the ongoing fuel crisis, while employees in public sector offices have also been asked to work from home.
Since June 24, no fuel tankers with supplies have arrived in the island nation, while state-run fuel retailer Ceylon Petroleum Corporation says no new orders have been placed.
Meanwhile, the government’s statistics office said on Tuesday that economic growth is expected to slow to minus 1.6 per cent in the first quarter of this year due to the economic crisis.
Fuel shortage has affected all sectors and reduction in production has contributed to negative growth, a release said.
The nearly bankrupt country, coupled with an acute foreign exchange crisis that resulted in foreign debt defaults, announced in April that it would forgo foreign debt repayments of about $7 billion out of about USD 25 billion due by 2026 for the year. is suspending.
Sri Lanka’s total external debt is $51 billion.
Sri Lankans are in long queues for fuel and cooking gas as the government is unable to find dollars for imports.
So far, there have been an estimated twelve deaths in fuel queues due to exhaustion, physical illness or accidents.
Angry citizens want President Rajapaksa and his government to resign immediately for their inability to deal with the fuel shortage.
Indian credit lines for fuel and essential goods have provided a lifeline until the ongoing talks with the International Monetary Fund can lead to a possible bailout.