India quicker than China in response to SL crisis

New Delhi, January 23

There is disappointment in Colombo over the Chinese response to Sri Lanka’s debt woes as compared to the enthusiastic helping hand by India.

Despite Sri Lanka risking India ire by permitting Chinese spy ships to dock at its ports, Beijing was seen as not just tardy in assisting Colombo when its economic woes were the deepest but also delayed sending a letter to the IMF supporting its debt restructuring.

While India submitted its letter to the IMF on January 16 and made little noise about it till the Sri Lankan media gave the details, the Chinese letter came nearly a week later after speculation mounted in Colombo about its hesitancy.

Sri Lanka’s disappointment came to the fore after China simply sent a letter to the Lankan Finance Minister backing the debt restructuring move but, unlike India, there has been no letter to the IMF. According to World Bank estimates, China has lent Sri Lanka about $7 billion or 12 per cent of island nation’s $63 billion external debt.

On Monday, India was the first country to hand over its letter of support for financing and debt restructuring of Sri Lanka to the IMF. When Sri Lanka was in deep economic trouble with no money to import essentials from diesel to life-saving medicines, India had provided $4.5 billion in assistance. On the other hand, China had sent 10,000 tonnes of rice, 9,000 litres of diesel, medicines and three million meters of school uniform material.