{"id":153825,"date":"2025-12-23T14:51:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=153825"},"modified":"2025-12-23T14:51:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:51:19","slug":"india-announces-450-million-relief-package-for-lanka-after-cyclone-ditwah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/12\/23\/india-announces-450-million-relief-package-for-lanka-after-cyclone-ditwah\/","title":{"rendered":"India announces $450 million relief package for Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Statesman<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday announced India\u2019s decision to offer a reconstruction package of USD 450 million to Sri Lanka post \u2018Cyclone Ditwah\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

xternal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday announced India\u2019s decision to offer a reconstruction package of USD 450 million to Sri Lanka post \u2018Cyclone Ditwah\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart Vijitha Herath in Colombo, Jaishankar, who is visiting the island nation as Special Envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he had this morning met Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka to personally deliver a letter from the Indian leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018\u2019We had a detailed discussion on the damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah. The letter from Prime Minister Modi that I handed over builds on our First Responder role and commits a reconstruction package of $450 million to Sri Lanka. Our talks centred on how expeditiously this commitment can be delivered,\u2019\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaishankar said the assistance package that India has proposed will include USD 350 million in concessional Lines of Credit and USD 100 million in grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This package is being finalised in close consultations with the Government of Sri Lanka. \u2018\u2019Our assistance will cover sectors worst affected by the cyclone, including: rehabilitation and restoration of road, railway and bridge connectivity; support for construction of houses fully destroyed and partially damaged; support for health and education systems, in particular, those that have been damaged by the cyclone; agriculture, including to address possible shortages in the short and medium term and working towards better disaster response and preparedness,\u2019\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India, he said, is conscious that work towards mitigating the impact of \u201dCyclone Ditwah\u201d on the people of Sri Lanka must be done in the quickest time possible. \u2018\u2019We are discussing an effective coordination mechanism for the earliest possible delivery,\u2019\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting that Sri Lanka is a significant tourism economy, the Indian minister assured the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister that India will continue to encourage tourism traffic from the country in that regard. Similarly, an increase in Foreign Direct Investment from India can also boost Sri Lanka\u2019s economy at a critical time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaishankar recalled that India\u2019s relief and assistance mission \u2013 Operation Sagar Bandhu \u2013 commenced on the very day that Cyclone Ditwah made landfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Sri Lanka\u2019s closest neighbour and in line with India\u2019s \u2018\u2019Neighbourhood First\u2019\u2019 and \u2018\u2019MAHASAGAR\u2019 policies, it was only natural that India step forward at a time when Sri Lanka faced a crisis, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Statesman External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday announced India\u2019s decision to offer a reconstruction package of USD 450 million to Sri Lanka post \u2018Cyclone Ditwah\u2019. xternal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday announced India\u2019s decision to offer a reconstruction package of USD 450 million to Sri Lanka post \u2018Cyclone Ditwah\u2019. At a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153826,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153825\/revisions\/153826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}