Colombo: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday expressed concern over the plight of Sheikh Hasina and said if she had released former premier Khaleda Zia from jail long ago, she would still be Bangladesh’s Prime Minister.
“While I do not want to comment on the internal politics of Bangladesh which is a friendly country, I would like to make a note. Although she has left her post, we must remember that she lent our country USD 200 million at the most difficult moment of our country,” Wickremesinghe said at an event in Colombo.
He was referring to a loan extended by the Hasina government at the height of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in 2022 — the only external assistance besides India’s USD 4 billion worth of economic lifeline.
“I think it’s only fair to say some good words about a person who’s really down at the moment. I also welcome the fact that Khaleda Zia has been released from jail. If Sheikh Hasina had done it long ago, she would have still been Prime Minister,” he added.
“We wish that normalcy would return to Bangladesh soon. There may be short-term problems. We in Sri Lanka faced a similar situation. Sri Lanka is among the big investors in Bangladesh, we have helped them create jobs,” he added.
Wickremesinghe was thrust into the Sri Lankan presidency under a similar political turmoil in 2022 when then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the island nation like Hasina did and resigned from his post.
The upheaval in Bangladesh came as in Sri Lanka following months-long public protests which demanded Rajapaksa’s resignation.
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