Sri Lanka’s New President Wants to Stay Neutral Between China and India
Sri Lanka’s new president is Anura Kumara Dissanayake. He was elected on Sunday and triumphed over the former president, Ranil Wickremesinghe. He has ambitious ideas of how Sri Lanka will be dealing with other countries.
Dissanayake said in an interview that Sri Lanka does not wish to be caught in the middle of China and India. This means he does not wish his country to be dragged into a conflict between these two powerful neighbors.
What Dissanayake wants is for Sri Lanka to be friends with China and India at the same time. He also wants good relations with other regions of the world such as Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He desires to avoid engaging Sri Lanka in fights between large nations.
This approach is important because Sri Lanka is in a tricky position. It is in the region close to China and India, the two countries that are vying for dominance in the region. This way Sri Lanka wants to retain its independence and not be governed by other nations or forces.
From the election, the Dissanayake who is popularly known as AKD was the winner of the election after garnering 1.27 million votes than any of his rivals. He took the presidency on Monday and promised to change the country known as Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is on the worst financial crisis it has ever had in over seven decades. Dissanayake said Sri Lanka is a ‘bankrupt nation’ and said that Sri Lanka owes other countries, €34 billion to be precise. They have said that majority of the people in Sri Lanka are poor and that the prices of most of the essential commodities have gone up.
Dissanayake also condemned the previous ruling party and the main opposition party. He said they both subscribed to economic policies that have caused Sri Lanka’s current issues. His party is the National People’s Power (NPP) and they have plans to change what needs to be done to solve the money problem in the country and restore order.
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Other countries have congratulated Dissanayake on becoming president. India, Pakistan, Maldives, and China all congratulated the new President. China which has provided a lot of money to Sri Lanka said it wants the country to remain stable and continue to progress.
When Dissanayake begins his term as president, he is met with large problems within Sri Lanka and with other nations. People in Sri Lanka and throughout the world will follow his plans to remain neutral and make sure that the economy gets better.
