President invites Sajith, Anura to join him for video meeting with IMF officials

“All three parties should join  a video meeting with the IMF officials and then they can tell us what they plan to do. Let all three of us talk to the IMF together. I am willing to join such a meeting, “the President said, speaking at the special convention of the United National Party (UNP)  held today.

The President underscored the importance of continuing with the IMF agreement  saying that any attempt to change it would have dire consequences for the country.

“The IMF team will visit the country toward the end of September or October to review our progress. We in the UNP will take this program forward. The SJB and the NPP say they will  renegotiate this agreement which means funding will stop in the interim period and we could go back to  2022 status,” the President warned.

“The claims that they will renegotiate the agreement are false. How can they do it? The IMF will under no condition change the conditions of the agreement,” he said.

The President cited  the case of Greece where attempts to renegotiate  the IMF agreement led to a collapse of the economy with taxes such as VAT going from l8% to 23 %. “Their attempts to renegotiate the agreement were rejected. The IMF insisted that the agreement must be kept,” he said.

He said in the end the Greece government was forced to accept the original agreement.

The President also said that the United National Party (UNP) has always put the country first and those who run away from responsibility are those who have not worked with UNP stalwarts like J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa.

“The UNP has always put the country first starting with D.S.Senanayake. It is only if the country survives that the Party can survive,”he said.

The President said that during the 1971 insurrection , J.R.Jayewardene, then Opposition Leader unconditionally extended support to then Prime Minister Mrs.Sirimano Bandaranaike.

“When there was an impeachment against President Premadasa I stood by him. When he was assassinated ,I was there. Mrs.Bandaranauke came and met me and told me that we can put forward anyone to take over as president and they would  not field any candidate. This is how we worked,” he said.

 The proposal for President Ranil Wickremesinghe to contest the upcoming presidential election as an independent candidate  was unanimously approved at the special convention held at UNP headquarters Srikotha .