India was closely watching the developments in the island nation, the MEA said

India stands ready to continue working with Sri Lanka for rapid post-COVID economic recovery in line with its “neighbourhood first” policy, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday.

Responding to a question related to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka during the weekly media briefing, Bagchi said that India had extended assistance worth 2.5 billion USD in the past few months.

Describing Sri Lanka as a "neighbour and a close friend of India", he said India was closely watching the developments in the island nation.

Sri Lanka is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that has impacted the availability of fuel and other essential items including food.

“There have been evolving economic situations as well as other developments in Sri Lanka. In order to help mitigate the economic situation, we have extended assistance worth 2.5 billion USD in the past two to three months which includes credit facilities for fuel and food,” said Bagchi.

India has delivered over 270,000 MT of diesel and petrol to Sri Lanka since mid-March and 40,000 tonnes of rice have been supplied to the island nation under the recently extended one billion USD credit facility, Bagchi pointed out.

The relationship between the two countries is rooted in shared civilisational values and aspirations of the people, cooperation based on commonality and interest, which has been strengthened in recent months, the MEA Spokesperson explained.