Colombo

India continues its COVID-19 assistance to Sri Lanka by initiating the delivery of 100,000 Rapid Antigen Self Test Kit from Friday, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said.

"A special gift from a friend on #IndependenceDay!! #India continues its #COVID19 assistance to #SriLanka by initiating the delivery of 100,000 RAT kits from today. Remaining kits to follow in the coming days," the High Commission tweeted.

As Sri Lanka is facing a serious financial crisis, India has stepped up and pledged a whopping $2.415 billion to the island nation to help overcome dire financial constraints caused by external debt payments and a lack of US dollars in the country for business.

Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a virtual meeting with the Finance Minister of Sri Lanka Basil Rajapaksa. During the meeting, Jaishankar conveyed that India has always stood with Sri Lanka, and will continue to support Sri Lanka in all possible ways for overcoming the economic and other challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To help Sri Lanka overcome its economic challenges, India under the SAARC currency swap arrangement has made an extension of $400 million to Colombo and provided a deferral of ACU (Asian Clearing Union) settlement of $515.2 million by two months.

India's critical support to Sri Lanka is due to the ongoing fuel crisis where the country is unable to purchase due to a shortage of US dollars in the country, the Policy Research Group (PRG) had said in its report.