Geopolitics

How will Sri Lanka emerge from the crisis?

Women wait near an empty gas station hoping to buy kerosene for cooking in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, May 26, 2022. © AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena

By: Amelie Beaucour

1 min

2022 will have been an eventful year for Sri Lanka.

Deprived of tourism following the pandemic and the 2019 attacks on its soil, the country lacks foreign currency and has not been able to repay its debt to China.

Its 22 million inhabitants are struggling today to fill the tank of their vehicle and to feed themselves, not to mention the shortages of medicines and bans on the import of nearly 300 products.

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Another culprit is designated: the regime and its management of finances.

In July, the president fled the country and resigned following demonstrations by civil society.

The Rajapaksa clan seems defeated, but Parliament chooses former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to replace him, stoking the anger of an entire people.

A few weeks later, a Chinese ship, accused of espionage, landed in Sri Lanka and revived tensions between Beijing and New Delhi.

India and China are however the two main allies of Sri Lanka and its main creditors.

How will the country be able to get its head above water?

Should it rely on India and China to resolve its economic crisis?

What political and geopolitical future for Sri Lanka?

Guests: 

- Delon Madavan

, geographer, and member of the Center for the Study of India and Southeast Asia of the EHESS, CNRS

- Jean-Luc Racine

, Emeritus Research Director and Senior Researcher at the Asia Center

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