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Former Under Secretary General of the UN, Erik Solheim met with the former prime minister of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday in Colombo to discuss the economic crisis in the nation.
The two leaders also discussed how Sri Lanka can get out of the economic crisis and how a debt-ridden country can combine economy and ecology to find green solutions. Taking to Twitter, Erik Solheim wrote, "Met with the former president and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo, Sri Lanka. We discussed how Sri Lanka can get out of the economic crisis and how Sri Lanka can combine economy and ecology to find green solutions to the nation's challenges." The Island nation's former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was prevented from leaving the country without the court's permission due to the crisis. With many Sri Lankans experiencing extreme shortages of essentials including food and fuel, peaceful protests began in March. The protests led then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign on May 9, and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to flee the country on July 13 and resign the following day. Wickremasinghe became acting president, and parliament elected him as the new president on July 20 with the support of the Rajapaksas' political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. Sri Lanka is in the throes of its worst-ever economic crisis with soaring inflation. The oil supply shortage forced schools and government offices to shut down in the debt-ridden country. Reduced domestic agricultural production, lack of foreign exchange reserves, and local currency depreciation have fuelled the shortages. The economic crisis will push many families into hunger and poverty - some for the first time - adding to the half a million people who the World Bank estimates have fallen below the poverty line because of the pandemic. (ANI)
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