Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed to step down Wednesday, but Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would leave once a new government was in place.
The political impasse is further fueling the economic crisis since the absence of an alternative unity government threatened to delay a hoped-for bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The government must submit a plan on debt sustainability to the IMF in August before reaching an agreement.Asked whether China was in talks with Sri Lanka about possible loans, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official gave no indication whether such discussions were happening.
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s religious leaders urged protesters to leave the government buildings they're occupying if Rajapaksa resigns as promised Wednesday. The protesters have vowed to wait until both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe are out of office. “What people are saying is that if the government doesn’t go, then there will be another show of people’s power and this time it might not be so peaceful,” he said.
The protesters accuse the president and his relatives of siphoning money from government coffers for years and Rajapaksa’s administration of hastening the country’s collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajakpaksa acknowledged some of his policies contributed to the meltdown.
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