The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe
Discussions with the United States are being handled through formal intergovernmental channels, involving USTR and other US agencies, while Sri Lanka is represented by an inter-agency team chaired by the Finance Ministry Secretary. The process is conducted in line with Cabinet decisions and includes consultations with relevant ministries, regulators, and the private sector where appropriate. The response emphasized that Sri Lanka’s economic context, IMF-related reforms, vulnerabilities, and recent consolidation are being raised in the talks, and that the Government also briefed the US Embassy on the impact of Cyclone “Ditwah”.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Very well.
¶ 02 3. Discussions with the United States are conducted through established intergovernmental channels. On the US side, officials of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and other relevant US agencies participate. On Sri Lanka’s side, an inter-agency team chaired by the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies participates, with the CBSL Governor, the Secretary to the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operatives, and the President’s Senior Economic Advisor as members.
¶ 03 Talks are conducted in line with Cabinet decisions, with pre-round consultations across line ministries (Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism; Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation; Health; Mass Media; Labour, etc.), regulators, and, as appropriate, the private sector.
¶ 04 Accordingly, inter-agency coordination, under proper institutional mandates, is ensured to safeguard Sri Lanka’s interests. Sri Lanka’s contextual economic conditions—including IMF programme reforms, vulnerabilities and recent consolidation—are continually emphasized. During the recent US Embassy visit, the Government briefed on the economic and social impact of Cyclone “Ditwah”.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 5 February 2026 ·No. 23269 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/12997
Cite as: The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 5 February 2026. No. 23269. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/12997