India, Japan to announce Sri Lanka debt restructuring process

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will join her Japanese counterpart and a senior French Finance Ministry official in Washington on Thursday to announce Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring negotiations process, the IMF has announced.

The finance ministers of the three creditor countries will hold a press briefing on the margins of the annual Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.

“Japan, India, and France on Thursday will hold a press briefing on the margins of the Spring meetings to announce the launch of the debt restructuring negotiations process on Sri Lanka,” IMF said on Tuesday, quoting a Japanese Finance Ministry statement.

The three creditor countries have been working closely for a coordinated debt restructuring for Sri Lanka, the statement said.

Japanese finance minister Shunichi Suzuki and France’s Director General of the Treasury Emmanuel Moulin will join Sitharaman during the press briefing. Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his state finance minister Shehan Semasinghe will also join the in-person live streaming.

The Washington-based global lender had made Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring a prerequisite for granting the $2.9 billion bailout.