Impact of US tariffs: Sri Lanka seeks deeper economic ties with India

Colombo, Apr 5 (PTI) Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Saturday conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi the need to further ramp up bilateral economic engagement in order to deal with the fall out of the US' reciprocal tariffs.

On his part, PM Modi assured Dissanayake that India would always "stand by" Sri Lanka to face any difficulties, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.

The issue figured in the wide-ranging talks between the two leaders at the Sri Lankan presidential secretariat.

"It is obviously something that has impacted everybody. I think Sri Lanka is also dealing with this issue. There was a reference to this... or discussions on this during the meeting between the president and the prime minister," Misri said at a media briefing.

He was responding to a question on whether Dissanayake brought up the issue of possible impact of President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariff on Sri Lanka.

"I think the President of Sri Lanka emphasised in particular the importance in this regard given these kinds of geo-economic developments that have a certain impact on Sri Lanka, especially given the economic situation now, and the economic passage that Sri Lanka is passing through at the current moment," Misri said.

The foreign secretary suggested that Dissanayake underlined the need for India and Sri Lanka to further strengthen the economic engagement in order to deal with the fallout of some of these (geo-economic) developments.

"Of course, the prime minister assured him that India would always continue to stand by Sri Lanka as it encountered and dealt with these difficulties," he said.

Sri Lanka was reeling under a massive economic crisis two years back and India extended financial assistance worth USD 4.5 billion to the country. PTI MPB SCY

Source: PTI