China will agree to US$4 billion aid for Sri Lanka ’at some point’: Kohona

Sri Lanka is continuing negotiations with China for as much as US$4 billion in aid and is confident Beijing will agree "at some point," Bloomberg News reported on Friday (Jul 15), citing Sri Lanka's ambassador to China.

Colombo is asking China for a loan of US$1 billion to repay an equivalent amount of Chinese debt coming due this year, Palitha Kohona said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Sri Lanka is also seeking a US$1.5 billion credit line to pay for Chinese imports and activation of a US$1.5 billion swap, Kohona added.

"We are confident that at some point the Chinese system will agree to our requests because these are not unreasonable requests," the report quoted Kohona as saying.

"We have made similar requests to other creditors. Sri Lanka needs the funding to bring stability to our financial system and we are confident that the Chinese will come to the party sooner than later," he added.