New Sri Lankan President: No Sandwiching Between India and China

Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake recently stated in an interview that he does not want to be caught between India and China. He emphasized that his administration would not align itself with any ‘power camp’. In the interview with The Monocle, conducted on September 3, he mentioned, “Both countries are valued friends.”

Dissanayake, leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party, recently won the parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, defeating Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). This election marked the first since mass protests unseated Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 following a severe economic crisis.

In this election, Dissanayake received 5.74 million votes, while Premadasa garnered 4.53 million votes. One of Dissanayake’s stated priorities is to save the country from its ongoing economic turmoil. “Today, we are a bankrupt nation. We have an external debt of €34 billion, poverty has increased, and the prices of essential goods have skyrocketed,” he stated.

Dissanayake also expressed a desire to maintain relations with the European Union, the Middle East, and Africa. He noted, “Both the main opposition and the ruling party follow the same neoliberal economic model.”

Aakhir Tak Editor-in-Chief

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