Japan calls for creditor nations' talks on Sri Lanka debt restructuring

FILE PHOTO: A protesters holds a national flag at a seafront tent camp that became the focal point of months-long nationwide demonstrations, as the deadline police asked them to leave the camp is approaching, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 10, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Friday urged all creditor nations to discuss Sri Lanka's debt restructuring, after the crisis-hit South Asian nation reached a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

"It's important for all creditor nations, including China and India, to gather to discuss Sri Lanka's debt restructuring," Suzuki told a news conference.

Sri Lanka has reached a preliminary agreement with the IMF for a loan of about $2.9 billion, the global lender said on Thursday, as the country seeks a way out of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

FILE PHOTO: Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki attends the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia July 16, 2022. Sonny Tumbelaka/Pool via REUTERS

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto, Writing by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)