Donald Lu, US Deputy Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Regions, is due to arrive in Sri Lanka on Wednesday. He will be joined by a high-ranking US Government delegation.
Among the areas they are likely to discuss are the region’s and Sri Lanka’s economic crisis and the human rights situation. Mr Lu recently visited India where the topic of Sri Lanka had also come up in talks. He was in India at the same time as head of the International Monetary Fund.
Meanwhile, China’s Finance Minister Liu Kun called Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday to convey Beijing’s willingness to continue debt restructuring talks.
Bangladesh said it was “hopeful” Sri Lanka would repay the debt of $200 million that it owes to Bangladesh by March 2023.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Bangladesh central bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder said, “We [Bangladesh] gave $200 million to Sri Lanka under a currency swap agreement. But due to Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, they could not return the money on time.”
