Asia
China summons European diplomats over statement on Taiwan
China says it summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven nations and the European Union criticizing threatening Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan.
The Foreign Ministry on Friday said Vice Minister Deng Li made “solemn representations” over what he called “wanton interference in China’s internal affairs.”
China has dispatched navy ships and warplanes and launched missiles into the Taiwan Strait in response to a visit this week by U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, which China regards as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.
On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft heading toward the exercise area. Fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out into the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan island, a popular scenic spot.
Read: China cannot stop US officials from visiting Taiwan: Pelosi
On Friday morning, China sent military ships and war planes across the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said, crossing what had been an unofficial buffer zone between China and Taiwan for decades.
Five of the missiles fired by China since the military exercises began Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile landings to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”
Japan’s Defense Ministry later said they believe the other four missiles, fired from China’s southeastern coast of Fujian, flew over Taiwan.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan represent a “grave problem” that threatens regional peace and security.
In Tokyo, where Pelosi is winding up her Asia trip, she said China cannot stop U.S. officials from visiting Taiwan. Speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, Kishida said the missile launches need to be “stopped immediately.”
China conducts 'precision missile strikes' in Taiwan Strait
China conducted “precision missile strikes” Thursday in the Taiwan Strait and in the waters off the eastern coast of Taiwan as part of military exercises that have raised tensions in the region to their highest level in decades.
China earlier announced that military exercises by its navy, air force and other departments were underway in six zones surrounding Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.
Five of the missiles fired by China landed inside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off its coast, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile landings to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.” The missiles landed off Hateruma, an outer island quite far from the main islands of Japan, he said.
The drills were prompted by a visit to the island by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week and are intended to advertise China’s threat to attack the self-governing island republic. Along with its moves to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, China has long threatened military retaliation over moves by the island to solidify its de facto independence with the support of key allies including the U.S.
China fired long-range explosive projectiles, the Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, the ruling Communist Party's military wing, said in a statement. It also said it carried out multiple conventional missile launches in three different areas in the eastern waters off Taiwan. An accompanying graphic on state broadcaster CCTV showed those occurred in the north, east, and south.
“All missiles hit the target accurately,” the Eastern Theater said in its announcement. No further details were given.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it tracked the firing of Chinese Dongfeng series missiles beginning around 1:56 p.m. Thursday. It said in a statement it used various early warning surveillance systems to track the missile launches. It later said it counted 11 Dongfeng missiles in the waters in the north, east and south.
The ministry also said it tracked long-distance rockets and ammunition firing in outlying islands in Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin.
Earlier during the day, Taiwan's Defense ministry said its forces were on alert and monitoring the situation, while seeking to avoid escalating tensions. Civil defense drills were held last week and notices were placed on designated air raid shelters months ago.
China's “irrational behavior" intends to alter the status quo and disrupt regional peace and stability, the ministry said.
“The three service branches will combine efforts with all the people to jointly safeguard national security and territorial integrity" while adapting to the situation as it develops, the statement said.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported the exercises were joint operations focused on “blockade, sea target assault, strike on ground targets, and airspace control.”
Ma Chen-kun, a professor at Taiwan’s National Defense University, said the drills were aimed at showing off the Chinese military’s ability to deploy precision weapons to cut off Taiwan’s links with the outside and facilitate the landing of troops.
The announced drills are “more complete" than previous exercises, he said.
Read:US-China ties on a precipice after Pelosi visit to Taiwan
"If the People’s Liberation Army actually invades Taiwan in an all-out invasion, the concrete actions it will take, it’s all in this particular exercise,” Ma said.
“The main thing is they will cut off Taiwan’s links to the outside world, from their sea, they would suppress the coastal defense firepower,” he said.
Meanwhile, the mood in Taiwan was calm.
In Keelung, a city on the northern coast of Taiwan and close to two of the announced drill areas, swimmers took their morning laps in a natural pool built in the ocean.
Lu Chuan-hsiong, 63, was enjoying his morning swim, saying he wasn't worried. “Because Taiwanese and Chinese, we’re all one family. There’s a lot of mainlanders here, too,” he said.
“Everyone should want money, not bullets,” he quipped, saying the economy wasn't doing so well.
Those who have to work on the ocean were more concerned. Fishermen are likely to be the most affected by the drills, which cover six different areas surrounding Taiwan, part of which come into the island's territorial waters.
Most fishermen will continue to try to fish, as it is the season for squid.
“It's very close. This will definitely impact us, but if they want to do this, what can we do? We can just avoid that area,” said Chou Ting-tai, who owns a fishing vessel.
While the U.S. has not said it would intervene, it has bases and forward-deployed assets in the area, including aircraft carrier battle groups.
On Thursday, the U.S. Navy said its USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier was operating in the Philippine Sea, east of Taiwan, as part of “normal scheduled operations."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the drills Thursday saying, “I hope very much that Beijing will not manufacture a crisis or seek a pretext to increase its aggressive military activity. We countries around the world believe that escalation serves no one and could have unintended consequences that serve no one’s interests.”
U.S. law requires the government to treat threats to Taiwan, including blockades, as matters of “grave concern."
The drills are due to run from Thursday to Sunday and include missile strikes on targets in the seas north and south of the island in an echo of the last major Chinese military drills aimed at intimidating Taiwan's leaders and voters held in 1995 and 1996.
On the diplomatic front, China canceled a foreign ministers’ meeting with Japan to protest a statement from the Group of Seven nations that there is no justification for the exercises. Both ministers are attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia.
“Japan, together with other members of the G-7 and the EU, made an irresponsible statement accusing China and confounding right and wrong,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in Beijing.
While China has given no word on numbers of troops and military assets involved, the exercises could be the largest held near Taiwan in geographical terms, experts have said.
The exercises involved troops from the navy, air force, rocket force, strategic support force and logistic support force, Xinhua reported.
Taiwan cancels flights as China holds military drills
Taiwan canceled airline flights Thursday as China fired missiles near the self-ruled island in retaliation for a top American lawmaker’s visit, adding to the risk of disruptions in the flow of Taiwanese-made processor chips needed by global telecom and auto industries.
China ordered ships and planes to avoid military drills that encircled Taiwan, which the mainland's ruling Communist Party claims as part of its territory. The Hong Kong newspaper The South China Morning Post called the drills an “effective Taiwan blockade.”
Beijing announced “live-fire exercises” after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the House of Representatives arrived Tuesday for a one-day visit, defying warnings from Beijing. It earlier banned imports of hundreds of Taiwanese food items including fish, fruit and cookies.
The two sides, which split in 1949 after a civil war, have no official ties but one of the world’s busiest technology and manufacturing relationships.
Taiwanese companies are preparing for Chinese shows of force and possible trade disruptions beyond the four days Beijing says its drills will last, said economist Alicia Garcia Herrero of Natixis CIB, who was meeting businesspeople in the island’s capital, Taipei.
“They are starting to think of solutions, re-routing, delaying orders until they have more clarity,” said Garcia Herrero. “I think people are realizing this is not just a four-day thing.”
On Thursday, at least 40 flights to and from Taiwan were canceled, according to the China Times newspaper. It cited Taoyuan Airport in the capital, Taipei, as saying cancellations were “not necessarily” related to the military drills.
Read:US-China ties on a precipice after Pelosi visit to Taiwan
There was no immediate indication of the possible impact on shipping, which has the potential to jolt the global economy.
Taiwan produces more than half the processor chips used in smartphones, autos, tablet computers and other electronics. Chip sales to Chinese factories that assemble most of the world's consumer electronics rose 24.4% last year to $104.3 billion.
Any significant disruption would “create shockwaves to global industries,” said Rajiv Biswas of S&P Global Market Intelligence in an email.
That could push up already high inflation in the United States and Europe the same way prices spiked after the coronavirus disrupted shipping in 2020-21, said Garcia Herrero.
“If ports can't operate normally, we can see the consequences,” she said.
The ruling party's military wing, the People's Liberation Army, said it carried out "precision missile strikes” in the 100-mile-wide (160-kilometer-wide) Taiwan Strait that separates the island from the mainland but gave no details about the location.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it tracked the firing of missiles at waters northeast and southwest of the island.
China's foreign ministry rejected suggestions the drills were dangerous and said the United States was to blame for tension.
“China’s practice is in line with international law,” said a ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying.
Washington has no official ties with Taiwan but maintains extensive informal relations and is obligated by federal law to see that the island has the means to defend itself. Pelosi was the highest-ranking elected American official to visit the island since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Chinese President Xi Jinping's government accuses Washington of supporting formal independence for Taiwan, a step Beijing says would lead to war. The government of President Joe Biden says it doesn't support independence but wants the dispute to be resolved peacefully.
Some flights to the mainland would detour through Hong Kong. Taiwan’s transport minister, Wang Kwo-tsai, said Wednesday at a news conference.
Business between the two sides has grown even as Xi's government stepped up pressure, sending growing numbers of fighter planes and bombers to fly around Taiwan to intimidate its government.
Two-way trade soared 26% last year to $328.3 billion. Taiwan said chip sales to Chinese factories rose 24.4% to $104.3 billion.
Fruit, fish and other foods are a small part of Taiwan’s exports to China, but the ban hurts areas that are seen as supporters of President Tsai Ing-wen.
Beijing has used import bans on bananas, wine, coal and other goods as leverage in disputes with Australia, the Philippines and other governments.
Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo becomes Bengal minister
Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo on Wednesday became a minister in the West Bengal government, as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rejigged her Cabinet in the wake of the cash-for-jobs scam.
Apart from 50-year-old Supriyo, four other new faces -- Snehashish Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmik, Udayan Guha and Pradip Majumder -- were inducted into the Cabinet by Mamata. All of them were administered the oath of office this afternoon.
The Cabinet reshuffle comes barely a week after Mamata sacked Partha Chatterjee, one of her senior ministers, from the Cabinet as well as from all posts of her ruling Trinamool Congress party following his arrest in the school teachers' recruitment scam.
Chatterjee held several portfolios in the state Cabinet, including Commerce and Industry, IT and electronics, and Industrial Reconstruction. He was also the Trinamool Congress party's general secretary.
Read:Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo to become minister in Bengal govt?
Supriyo joined the Trinamool Congress party in September 2021, two months after he was dropped as a federal minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After joining politics and India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) some eight years ago, he became India's junior Urban Development Minister and Heavy Industries Minister in the Modi government's first tenure. He was the junior Environment Minister in the second term.
Born Supriya Baral, he entered Bollywood as a playback singer in the mid-nineties and has sung for many films since then. He has also done playback singing in 11 Indian languages during his musical career.
Sri Lanka leader proposes 25-year plan for crisis-hit nation
Sri Lanka's new president said Wednesday that his government is preparing a national policy roadmap for the next 25 years that aims to cut public debt and turn the country into a competitive export economy as it seeks a way out of its worst economic disaster.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his speech to Parliament said Sri Lanka needs long-term solutions and a strong foundation to stop a recurrence of economic crises.
Massive public protests have blamed Wickremesinghe's ousted predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapakasa, and his powerful family for years of mismanagement and corruption that have bankrupt the nation and led to unprecedented shortages of essential imports like fuel, medicine and cooking gas. But many are still skeptical of Wickremesinghe and accuse him of trying to protect the former leader and his relatives.
Sri Lanka announced in April that it is suspending repayment of foreign loans. Its total foreign debt is $51 billion, of which it must pay $28 billion by 2027.
Wickremesinghe said his government had initiated negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a four-year rescue plan and had commenced the finalization of a debt restructuring plan.
Read:Sri Lankans bide time as leaders seek fix for economic woes
“We would submit this plan to the International Monetary Fund in the near future, and negotiate with the countries who provided loan assistance. Subsequently negotiations with private creditors would also begin to arrive at a consensus,” he said.
He said the government's aim is to create a surplus in the primary budget by the year 2025 and to bring down public debt, currently at 140% of GDP, to less than 100% by 2032.
“The economy should be modernized. Economic stability should be established and transformed into a competitive export economy. In this context, we are now preparing the necessary reports, plans, rules and regulations, laws and programs,” he said.
“If we build the country, the nation and the economy through the national economic policy, we would be able to become a fully developed country by the year 2048, when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of independence,” Wickremesinghe said.
Wickremesinghe was elected president last month to complete the rest of Rajapaksa’s five-year term, which ends in 2024. Rajapaksa fled the country after protesters, furious over the economic hardships, stormed his official residence and occupied several key government buildings.
Wickremesinghe has since cracked down on protests and sought amity among political parties, saying only an all-party government can solve the country's problems.
“The expectation of all the citizens of the country at this juncture is for all their representatives in Parliament to work together in order to build the country,” he said.
Pelosi believed headed to Taiwan, raising tension with China
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was believed headed for Taiwan on Tuesday on a visit that could significantly escalate tensions with Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory.
Pelosi is on an Asian tour this week that is being closely watched to see if she will defy China’s warnings against visiting the island republic, a close U.S. ally.
China has vowed to retaliate if Pelosi becomes the highest U.S. elected official to visit Taiwan in more than 25 years, but has given no details. Speculation has centered on threatening military exercises and possible incursions by Chinese planes and ships into areas under Taiwanese control.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington’s betrayal “on the Taiwan issue is bankrupting its national credibility.”
“Some American politicians are playing with fire on the issue of Taiwan,” Wang said in a statement. “This will definitely not have a good outcome ... the exposure of America’s bullying face again shows it as the world’s biggest saboteur of peace.”
A plane carrying Pelosi and her delegation left Malaysia on Tuesday after a brief stop that included a working lunch with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, It was unclear where it was headed, although local media in Taiwan reported that Pelosi would arrive on Tuesday night. The United Daily News, Liberty Times and China Times — Taiwan’s three largest national newspapers — cited unidentified sources as saying she would spend the night in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment. Premier Su Tseng-chang didn’t explicitly confirm Pelosi’s visit, but said Tuesday that “any foreign guests and friendly lawmakers” are “very much welcome.”
Barricades were erected outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei where Pelosi was expected to stay amid heightened security.
China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be annexed by force if necessary, has repeatedly warned of retaliation if Pelosi visits, saying its military will “never sit idly by.”
“The U.S. and Taiwan have colluded to make provocations first, and China has only been compelled to act out of self-defense,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters Tuesday in Beijing.
Hua said China has been in constant communication with the U.S. and made clear “how dangerous it would be if the visit actually happens.” Any countermeasures China take will be “justified and necessary” in the face of Washington’s “unscrupulous behavior,” she said.
Unspecified hackers launched a cyberattack on the Taiwanese Presidential Office’s website, making it temporarily unavailable Tuesday evening. The Presidential Office said the website was restored shortly after the attack, which overwhelmed it with traffic.
“China thinks by launching a multi-domain pressure campaign against Taiwan, the people of Taiwan will be be intimidated. But they are wrong,” Wang Ting-yu, a legislator with the Democratic Progressive Party, said on Twitter in response to the attack.
China’s military threats have driven concerns of a new crisis in the 100-mile (140-kilometer) -wide Taiwan Strait separating the two sides that could roil global markets and supply chains.
The White House on Monday decried Beijing’s rhetoric, saying the U.S. has no interest in deepening tensions with China and “will not take the bait or engage in saber rattling.”
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby underscored that the decision whether to visit Taiwan was ultimately Pelosi’s. He noted that members of Congress have routinely visited the island over the years.
Read:China’s Xi warns Biden over Taiwan, calls for cooperation
Kirby said administration officials are concerned that Beijing could use the visit as an excuse to take provocative retaliatory steps, including military action such as firing missiles in the Taiwan Strait or around Taiwan, or flying sorties into the island’s airspace and carrying out large-scale naval exercises in the strait.
“Put simply, there is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait,” Kirby said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also urged China to “act responsibly” if Pelosi proceeds with the visit.
“If the speaker does decide to visit, and China tries to create some kind of a crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing,” he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. “We are looking for them, in the event she decides to visit, to act responsibly and not to engage in any escalation going forward.”
U.S. officials have said the U.S. military would increase its movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region if Pelosi visits Taiwan. U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group were in the Philippine Sea on Monday, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
The Reagan, the cruiser USS Antietam and the destroyer USS Higgins left Singapore after a port visit and moved north to their homeport in Japan. The carrier has an array of aircraft, including F/A-18 fighter jets and helicopters, on board as well as sophisticated radar systems and other weapons.
Taiwan and China split in 1949 after the Communists won a civil war on the mainland. The U.S. maintains informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan even as it recognizes Beijing as the government of China.
Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island’s decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don’t support. Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the U.S. government, would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.
The flight tracking site Flightradar24 said Pelosi’s aircraft, a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-40C, was the most tracked in the world on Tuesday evening with 300,000 viewers.
Pelosi has used her position in the U.S. Congress as an emissary for the U.S. on the global stage. She has long challenged China on human rights, and sought to visit Taiwan’s island democracy earlier this year before testing positive for COVID-19.
Pelosi kicked off her Asian tour in Singapore on Monday as her possible visit to Taiwan sparked jitters in the region.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong “highlighted the importance of stable U.S.-China relations for regional peace and security” during talks with Pelosi, the city-state’s Foreign Ministry said. This was echoed by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo, who said stable ties between the two rival powers “are extremely important for the international community as well.”
The Philippines urged the U.S. and China to be “responsible actors” in the region. “It is important for the U.S. and China to ensure continuing communication to avoid any miscalculation and further escalation of tensions,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza.
China has been steadily ratcheting up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan. China cut off all contact with Taiwan’s government in 2016 after President Tsai Ing-wen refused to endorse its claim that the island and mainland together make up a single Chinese nation, with the Communist regime in Beijing being the sole legitimate government.
On Thursday, Pelosi is to meet with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin Pyo in Seoul for talks on security in the Indo-Pacific region, economic cooperation and the climate crisis, according to Kim’s office. Pelosi is also due to visit Japan, but it is unclear when she heading there.
Pakistan says army general, 5 others die in helicopter crash
Pakistani search teams found the wreckage of a helicopter that went down the previous day in the country’s flood-stricken southwest, the military said Tuesday. An army general and five others on board were killed, it said.
The previous evening, the aircraft had lost contact with the air-traffic control tower in Baluchistan province, while flying on a relief mission in a flood-hit area in the southwest..
A military statement identified the deceased officer as regional commander Lt. Gen. Sarfraz Ali. It said that, according to an initial probe, the crash happened due to bad weather.
The helicopter was part of aid efforts in the flood-affected in Baluchistan, where rains and flash floods since June have killed nearly 150 people.. The military provided no further details.
Pakistan's President Arif Ali, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior politicians offered their condolences to the victims' families
Pakistan is currently using helicopters and boats to evacuate flood victims from various parts of the country, including Baluchistan and Rajanpur, a district in the eastern Punjab province.
Read: Pakistan army helicopter crashes in Kashmir; 2 pilots killed
Rains and flash floods have killed nearly 500 people across the country since June, when rains started lashing different parts of the country, triggering floods. Since then, rescue workers backed by the military have evacuated thousands of marooned people, including women and children, from various parts of Pakistan.
More rains are expected this week in Pakistan, where the monsoon season runs from July through September.
Modi, Maldivian Prez launch Gr Male connectivity projects, seal 6 deals
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih jointly launched the 'Greater Male connectivity projects', after holding high-level talks in Delhi on Tuesday.
"We have also decided to provide an additional line of credit of USD 100 million to the Maldives so that all projects can be completed in a timely manner," Modi said in his joint statement with President Solih.
Both countries also sealed as many as six pacts on areas like cyber security, disaster management, and police infrastructure development, following the talks between the two leaders.
Read: Modi holds talks with visiting Maldivian President
"Maldives-India relationship goes beyond diplomacy. This visit is an affirmation of the close bond between our two countries," President Solih told the media.
Earlier in the day, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted to describe the bilateral ties as "a partnership bound by the waves of the Indian Ocean, underpinned by close historical and cultural ties."
President Solih arrived in Delhi on Monday on a four-day visit to India. A high-level business delegation is accompanying him.
"A warm welcome to a close friend and maritime neighbour! President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of Maldives arrives in New Delhi for an official visit," Indian External Affairs Ministry tweeted after his arrival.
Read: Govt to probe allegation against diplomat Kazi Anarkoly: Shahriar
"An opportunity to nurture the unwavering friendship between our two countries and lend further momentum to the multifaceted partnership,” the Ministry wrote.
On Monday itself, President Solih held a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who later said that "India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy and the Maldives' 'India First' policy are complementary".
President Solih's visit comes barely a week after India gave its nod to a pact for judicial cooperation between the two countries. The Maldives is one of India's key maritime neighbours.
Sri Lankans bide time as leaders seek fix for economic woes
Sri Lankans who have endured months of fuel and food shortages are bracing for more pain as a newly installed government scrambles to find solutions to the Indian Ocean nation's economic emergency.
Like many others, fish monger Gamini Mallawarachchi says he is pinning his hopes on President Ranil Wickremesinghe 's ability to revive the economy and restore stability after months of turmoil and protests.
“Things are really, really bad now and my life is almost ruined,” said Mallawarachchi, who has given up on selling fish because he can't find fuel to get to the village where he used to buy it, and anyway his customers were buying less and less.
Mallawarachchi said he views Wickremesinghe his “last hope.”
Also read: Sri Lanka to host Asia Cup in UAE, ACC confirms
“I think he will do something. With his experience and knowledge, I believe he has the capability,” said Mallawarachchi. “But, he must show some results before the end of this year, otherwise, he will also have to face protests from the people,” he said.
Sri Lanka inched closer to ending its dire economic and humanitarian crisis with the July 20 appointment of Wickremesinghe's new government after months of protests and turmoil. But daunting hurdles lay ahead.
Lawmakers backed him in extending a national emergency that gives the president broad powers to crack down on any violence. That may buy him time to try to reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund on a requested $3 billion bailout.
Also read: Schools reopen in Sri Lanka after closure from fuel shortages
By his own admission, that’s easier said than done.
On Saturday, Wickremesinghe said he has pushed back by a month his aim of getting an agreement by early August since talks with the IMF stalled amid recent political turmoil.
So far there are scant signs of progress in negotiations with Sri Lanka’s other creditors on more than $50 billion that it owes to lenders.
“Because public debt is assessed as unsustainable,” the IMF’s approval would “require adequate financing assurances from Sri Lanka’s creditors that debt sustainability will be restored,” the lending agency said in a statement. That would require lenders, both public and private, to agree to accept smaller payouts on bonds, lower interest rates or extended repayment terms.
IMF conditions also would likely involve tax increases, better safeguards against corruption and other reforms such as privatizing state-owned companies like the national airline.
The World Bank issued a statement last week expressing “deep concern" over Sri Lanka and saying it wouldn't supply more funding, pending plans for “deep structural reforms" to address the causes of the crisis.
“He’s in a bind,” said Tamanna Salikuddin of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent institute based in Washington, D.C.
Austerity measures are a bitter pill to swallow for people who are going hungry and walking or biking to work because they cannot buy fuel. And raising taxes would likely undercut support from stalwarts in the ruling party who benefited from the tax cuts that helped deplete state coffers, she noted.
In June, Wickremesinghe, who was then prime minister for the sixth time, suggested a conference of major donors such as India, China and Japan. Sri Lanka, whose foreign exchange reserves are largely exhausted, is seeking “bridge financing” to be able to buy fuel and other essential supplies to keep the economy running.
“We have to hope that friendly countries will support Sri Lanka in the short term,” said political analyst Jehan Perera.
On a visit last week to New Delhi, Samantha Power, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, contrasted India’s aid to China’s, and urged Beijing to do more. India’s government says it has provided more than $1.5 billion in credit for purchases of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials.
Asked about Sri Lanka's debt impasse — and criticism that China's lending is not transparent — Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian accused the U.S. and other “western capital" of manipulating Sri Lanka's credit rating, speculating in its markets and preventing it from obtaining new financing.
“We hope the U.S. can genuinely help Sri Lanka overcome the current difficulties, ease the debt burden and realize sustainable development instead of unscrupulously using every opportunity possible to shift the blame, smear other countries and seek geopolitical games," Zhao said.
Official Chinese lending to Sri Lanka accounts for only about 10% of its debt but the amount of additional commercial borrowing from China is unclear.
“Unless and until the rest of their debt is restructured I don’t see the Chinese doing anything,” said Salikuddin. “They never take the first step.”
As talks with Sri Lanka’s lenders drag on, its people carry on, finding ways to get by and often waiting days in lines for gasoline, sometimes still returning home empty handed.
“Even if a deal (with the IMF) is agreed, Sri Lanka still faces a tough road ahead as far as its economic recovery goes. By no means is it that a deal is agreed and things get back to normal very quickly,” Gareth Leather of Capital Economics said in a recent online briefing.
The state-owned gas company has begun distributing cylinders of cooking gas — a mixture of propane and butane — but most people have to wait at least overnight to be able to buy them and the price has more than tripled since October.
The government also has introduced an app to ration gasoline purchases: 4 liters (1 gallon) a week for motorcycles, 20 liters (5.3 gallons) a week for cars and 40 liters (10.6 gallons) a week for buses.
The aim is to reduce the long queues at gas stations and crack down on a black market in fuel. Priority is being given to school buses, farming, fishing, tourism and public transport.
Many people say they’ve cut back or virtually given up on eating fish and meat due to high prices. Milk powder is hard to come by and prices of most essentials including bread and lentils have tripled.
“People will be more patient and will be prepared to wait as long as the acute shortages are dealt with,” said Perera. “Otherwise, it will be like a tinder box — you can see angry people on the roads every day in their cars, motorbikes. Angry people, it’s a tinder box situation, and a spark would lead to more turmoil.”
Mallawarachchi, the fish monger, used to earn about 6,000 rupees ($16) a day. Now he's living off his savings.
Sithum Udara, an office clerk, still goes to work, but what used to be a quick, comfortable commute by motorbike has become a misery of cramming onto buses or a train.
“Going to office is a nightmare now. I am really fed up and I think this is the worst time of my life," Udara said. “I have no choice but to go to work."
But Udara believes Wickremesinghe should be given “considerable time” to revive the economy and solve other problems. “He can't do it overnight; people must understand that reality."
For now, a big part of the president's job is managing expectations.
“The first thing he has to do is deliver on the economics,” Salikuddin said. “It’s the bankruptcy of the economy that brought people into the street,” she said.
Modi holds talks with visiting Maldivian President
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began high-level talks with visiting Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the national capital on Tuesday.
"Talks are currently underway between the two top leaders. On the agenda are various issues, including maritime ties, and both India and the Maldives are expected to sign a number of pacts, post-talks," sources said.
President Solih arrived in Delhi on Monday on a four-day visit to India. A high-level business delegation is accompanying him.
"A warm welcome to a close friend and maritime neighbour! President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of Maldives arrives in New Delhi for an official visit," Indian External Affairs Ministry tweeted after his arrival.
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"An opportunity to nurture the unwavering friendship between our two countries and lend further momentum to the multifaceted partnership,” the Ministry wrote.
On Monday itself, President Solih held a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who later said that "India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy and the Maldives' 'India First' policy are complementary".
President Solih's visit comes barely a week after India gave its nod to a pact for judicial cooperation between the two countries. The Maldives is one of India's key maritime neighbours.