China on Friday told Sri Lanka that it is ready to provide “urgently needed help,” an offer that came after the South Asian nation deployed its military to quell anger over its worst economic crisis in decades.
“China is willing to play a constructive role to help Sri Lanka achieve stable economic and social development under the principle of non-interference in internal affairs,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) said in a telephone call with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Rajapaksa said he appreciated China’s strong support when his country faced difficulties, Xinhua reported.
Photo: EPA-EFE
It added that he said Sri Lanka is willing to promote talks on a free-trade agreement, and to deepen cooperation in areas including finance, trade and tourism.
Citizens angered by worsening food and fuel shortages and rising living costs have taken to the streets to demand the ouster of the Rajapaksa family.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ordered a three-day military deployment before the funeral of a protester killed earlier this week when police fired at crowds.
The government in Colombo is seeking as much as US$4 billion in emergency aid this year to help the island nation ease hours-long power cuts, shorten fuel lines that stretch kilometers, and pay for imported medicines and food. With a loan from the IMF contingent upon conditions, including a restructure of existing debt, the island nation is turning to bilateral credit.
Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona said in WeChat that China’s firm commitment of assistance would contribute significantly.
Kohona said he is confident that China would come through on US$2.5 billion in financial support.
He said he had received reassurances from authorities in China that arrangements for loans and credit lines were progressing.
Sri Lanka was looking to borrow US$1 billion from Beijing so that it can repay existing Chinese loans due in July, as well as a US$1.5 billion credit line to purchase goods from the world’s No. 2 economy such as textiles needed to support the apparel export industry, he said.
Newly married and with his first child on the way, auto worker Wang (王) wanted to move into the apartment he bought in Wuhan three years ago, but those hopes were dashed by China’s ballooning property crisis. Saddled with nearly US$300,000 in debt and with his unit nowhere near completion, the 34-year-old decided he had enough and stopped making mortgage payments. He is among numerous home buyers across dozens of cities in China who have boycotted payments over fears that their properties will not be completed by cash-strapped, debt-laden developers. “They said construction would resume soon,” Wang said, only giving his surname. “But
‘COMMON THREATS’: In a speech marking the end of Japan’s rule over the Korean Peninsula, Yoon Suk-yeol said he wants to ‘swiftly ... improve’ relations with Tokyo South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday said Japan is a partner as the two countries face “common threats,” offering to improve ties between the allies of the US whose help Washington has sought in putting up a united front against the likes of China, Russia and North Korea. Yoon said in a speech to mark Japan’s World War II surrender and the end of its 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula that he wants to “swiftly and properly improve” relations with Tokyo stemming from historical disputes. “When Korea-Japan relations move toward a common future, and when the mission of
PLEAS FOR PEACE: After dozens of vehicles had been destroyed, Tijuana’s mayor told gangs the city would ‘take care of its citizens,’ and asked them to leave bystanders alone Hundreds of Mexican military troops were on Saturday flown into Tijuana to beef up street patrols after armed gangs hijacked and burned at least a dozen vehicles in the border city, the latest in a wave of attacks hitting civilians across the country. The US consulate in Tijuana instructed its employees “to shelter in place until further notice” around midnight on Friday because of the violence, as the Tijuana hijackings snarled traffic across the city and temporarily blocked access to one of the world’s busiest border crossings. About 350 national guard troops were flown in to reinforce thousands of federal troops already
EIGHT INJURED: Hamas hailed a ‘heroic operation,’ after which a pregnant woman delivered a healthy baby while intubated, a week after a conflict with militants ended Israeli police said yesterday that they arrested a suspect in a shooting attack on a bus in Jerusalem’s Old City, wounding eight people, two critically, including a pregnant woman. “The terrorist is in our hands,” police spokesman Kan Eli Levy told public radio hours after an attack that took place not far from the Western Wall, the holiest prayer site for Jews. A gunman started spraying bullets at the public transport bus and people outside the vehicle in the pre-dawn attack at the Tomb of David bus stop, bus driver Daniel Kanievsky said. “I was coming from the Western Wall. The bus was
RSS