Sri Lanka President says it’s not right time for Rajapaksa to return after fleeing country, WSJ reports
Sri Lanka’s new president Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday it was not the right time for former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to return to the country as it could inflame political tensions, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“I don’t believe it’s the time for him to return,” Wickremesinghe said in an interview with the Journal. “I have no indication of him returning soon.”
Rajapaksa, after facing calls to resign over his handling of the country, fled on July 13 and stepped down from his position.
Days later, Wickremesinghe won a vote in parliament to become the new president.
Wickremesinghe has remained in contact with Rajapaksa to deal with administrative handover issues and other government business, the Journal said.
The crisis-hit country has been in talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package. In April, Sri Lanka had suspended repayments on about $12 billion of foreign debt and has payments of nearly $21 billion due by the end of 2025.
Wickremesinghe expected the IMF staff-level agreement to be reached by the end of August, the report said, adding that Sri Lanka will have to secure upwards of $3 billion from other sources next year to support essential imports including fuel, food and fertilisers.
He also told the newspaper it would be months before Sri Lankans would see any marked improvement in their economic circumstances.
(Reuters)
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Agree. Gota you must stay away, at least for now, until the dust has settled down and not to make unnecessary complications for RW who is desperately trying to resurrect the country.
Gota, we may have an undying love for you forever, for how you liquidated them horrific LTTE terrorist MFs, but at the same time, we now hold you in deep contempt for allowing (or turning a blind eye) your extended and extended R-Clan incompetents and rogues – starting with Myna, Kaputa, N-kukka, etc. etc. to bring our dear nation to zero, from a dignified middle-income country that it was mere three years ago!
Dear Iyoma and Gota,
We love you and desire you to be back in our Motherland, living in Pangiriwatte.
The sooner it happens, the Nation will heal, quicker.