According to Wednesday’s remarks from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka has requested fuel from Russia and the resumption of tourist flights to assist the nation to weather its unprecedented economic crisis.
After running out of foreign cash to pay for imports, the island nation has endured months of outages, extreme inflation, and severe food and fuel shortages.
Rajapaksa claimed to have phoned with Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, to request loaned fuel supplies and to ‘humbly’ ask for the resume of flights between Moscow and Colombo.
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‘We unanimously agreed that strengthening bilateral relations in sectors such as tourism, trade & culture was paramount in reinforcing the friendship our two nations share.’
Aeroflot suspended flights last month after a Sri Lankan court briefly detained an Airbus belonging to the state-owned airline’s fleet over a payment dispute.
The United States and European Union have both imposed embargoes on Russian oil in response to the country’s February invasion of Ukraine.
Sri Lanka had bought around 90,000 tonnes of Siberian crude in May through an intermediary in Dubai, but ran out of dollars to purchase more.
Russia and Ukraine were among the top sources of tourists for Sri Lanka before February’s conflict began.
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic downturn since it gained independence from Britain in 1948.
The government defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April and is in bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.
European nations, Australia and the United States have asked their citizens to avoid travelling to Sri Lanka because of the deepening crisis.
The country has almost entirely run out of petrol and diesel, with non-essential government offices and schools ordered shut in an effort to conserve limited supplies of fuel.
