Power alongside Wickremesinghe in Colombo, 2019.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power spoke with newly appointed Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe earlier today, where she reiterated “her support to the people of Sri Lanka” and “stressed the need to urgently undertake political and economic reforms”.
Power also “expressed her sympathy for those Sri Lankans who were killed or injured in the political unrest earlier this month,” according to an official US statement.
She went on to note that “USAID would closely work with other donors such as the IMF, the World Bank, G7, and others to support Sri Lanka during this extraordinarily difficult period”.
Her call with Wickremesinghe comes as Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis in living memory.
Power will be particularly familiar with Sri Lanka, having visited the island on at least three different occasions. Under the Obama administration, she served as a White House national security staffer from 2009 to 2013, before going on to become the US ambassador to the UN until 2017. During her tenure, however, she came under both praise and criticism, particularly for the way in which the administration handled Sri Lanka.
Her return to a senior US government role reportedly left some diplomats in the Sri Lankan regime nervous.
Read more in our feature: Samantha Power, Sri Lanka and another opportunity
