India Provides The Biggest Humanitarian Assistance To Sri Lanka Worth $4 Billion

India has overtaken China by providing nearly $4 billion (₹31,904 Crore) as food & financial support so that Sri Lanka can deal with their flood & economic crisis.

Following a total of $968 million in loans in the first four months of 2022, India has surpassed China to take the top spot as the largest bilateral lender to the island nation’s crisis-hit Sri Lanka. 

For the past five years, between 2017 and 2021, China was the biggest creditor of Sri Lanka. But now India has overtaken China and became Sri Lanka’s primary source of financial assistance.

China made loans totaling $947 million. According to reports, $809 million of this was borrowed on the market from the China Development Bank. 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which disbursed $610 million in loans to Sri Lanka in 2021, has been the largest multilateral lender to that country over the previous five years.

According to a Daily FT report, India ($377 million) and ADB ($360 million) accounted for 76% of all payments in the first four months of 2022. 

Ruchira Kamboj, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, recently announced during the UNGA Annual Joint Debate that India had given Sri Lanka, which was in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, nearly $4 billion in food aid and financial support.

Also Read: China Wants To Work With India To Help Sri Lanka

At the UNGA Annual Joint Debate on the Reports of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), Ruchira Kamboj stated, 

“In our immediate neighborhood, we are continuing to help our good friend and neighbor Sri Lanka to ensure food security by providing nearly USD 4 billion in food and financial assistance over the past few months.”

India also provided 21,000 tons of fertilizer to Sri Lanka on 22nd August in addition to the 44,000 tons it provided the previous month.

India has been at the forefront of providing economic aid in the midst of the biggest crisis to hit Sri Lanka.

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