India on Thursday said it has been at the forefront of extending support to Sri Lanka and will continue to do so.
The comments by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came a day after Sri Lankan Parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country's President.
The 73-year-old Acting President won a parliamentary ballot days after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid escalating protests against his government over an unprecedented economic crisis marked by acute shortages of essentials like fuel, medicine and food.
"We will continue to stand by the people of Sri Lanka," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa on Thursday met newly-appointed President Ranil Wickremesinghe and offered his party's constructive support to his government to avert further misery and disaster in the crisis-hit nation.
Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the 8th President of Sri Lanka on Thursday after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapksa fled the country and resigned last week amidst the worst economic crisis faced by the country since independence in 1948.
Premadasa, the leader of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), who had announced his intention to contest against Wickremesinghe withdrew from the race for presidency at the last minute and offered support to Dullas Alahapperuma, a key member from the breakaway group of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party.
After his meeting with President Wickremesinghe, Premadasa said he had a cordial and frank exchange of ideas and reiterated the Opposition's determination to provide constructive support to avert misery and disaster, newsfirst.lk news portal reported.
Premadasa also proposed to strengthen the committee system in Parliament to achieve national consensus rather than dishing out ministerial portfolios to political opportunists resulting in a drain of scarce national resources, it said.
On Tuesday, Premadasa had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all political parties and the people of India to keep helping the island nation come out of its worst economic crisis irrespective of who becomes Sri Lanka's next president.
