India to provide additional $500-mn assistance to Sri Lanka for fuel

India will provide an additional $500 million in financial assistance to Sri Lanka for it to buy fuel, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister told reporters on Wednesday, adding Bangladesh was also willing to postpone a $450 million in swap repayments.

"Assistance by the IMF will take about six months to come to us and it will come in tranches," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister GL Peiris (pictured) said. "During the intervening period, we need to find funds to keep our people supplied with essentials."

Meanwhile China, whose large loans and investments to the island nation led to allegations of debt diplomacy, has said it will provide “emergency humanitarian assistance” to Colombo, but remained silent on its plea for debt rescheduling.

The Chinese government has decided to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka to help the country cope with the current difficulties, Xu Wei, a spokesperson for China International Development Cooperation Agency, said. China has noticed Sri Lanka's economic difficulties, Xu said, adding that as a traditional friendly neighbour to Sri Lanka, the Chinese government has decided to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the country to help it cope with the current difficulties, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xu as saying on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin repeated the same at a media briefing here, adding that the “Chinese side has announced that it will provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka.” “We will continue to offer support and assistance to the best of our capability to help Sri Lanka reinvigorate its economy and improve people's livelihood," he said.