The Hon. Vijitha Herath

¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Member. Many Sri Lankans, especially ex-service personnel, have gone to Russia and Ukraine, joined military service, and are at risk. Some are injured; some have called me from Russian hospitals. We are aware. We are taking steps to bring them back and assist those affected, though there are difficulties. We will take necessary measures.

¶ 02 Hon. Presiding Member, finally, some say we are carrying forward Ranil Wickremesinghe’s programme. We know better than you who Ranil is. You may know his private life; we know his policies. That is why we opposed the 2002 “Regaining Sri Lanka” programme, from then until now. His policies are anti-people; we are not part of them. The IMF programme we are engaging with is not Ranil’s; it was in fact initiated by Basil Rajapaksa. When Basil said he would sign with the IMF, who in the Opposition—Ranil then—asked for the basic document at the discussion called by President Gotabaya? It was Ranil. So this is not Ranil’s programme. The IMF deals with countries as a financial institution, regardless of who the national leader is. We are not implementing Ranil’s policies. We are engaging with any institution, in the people’s interest, to manage the current crisis. Long-term, we will implement our production-based plan in the upcoming Budget. We assure the people of that.

¶ 03 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member.