As India celebrated its 76th Independence Day on Monday, several young celebrities from Sri Lanka extended their warm greetings to the nation.

A video was posted on the Youth Celebrity Forum’s YouTube account in which young musicians, actors, and filmmakers from Sri Lanka could be seen marking the 75 years of India’s independence by hailing the relationship between the two counties. “We together fought against the British empire for our freedom and we won. I feel we (Sri Lanka and India) are one, we share the same roots, same culture and we are connected in all ways. We share the same spiritual brotherhood. Freedom is something we had to fight for and the time has come to celebrate the fact that we still have our freedom and we should never let go of it,” singer-actor Devnaka Porage said.

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Musician Hashini Wedanda thanked India for always supporting Sri Lanka.
“India and Sri Lanka are connected, We are forever grateful that you have our back…Wishing you a very happy Independence Day,” she said.

Hailing the ties between Sri Lanka and India, singer Ishini Thamodya Jayathilake said, “India holds an important relationship with mother Sri Lanka. India, a very happy Independence Day.”

For the unversed, India is becoming a stronger and more mutually beneficial partner to Sri Lanka. Apart from assistance during the pandemic and fertilizer chaos, India has also donated basic products for the island nation. India in the last several months, has provided assistance on several fronts to the island nation to tide over its economic crisis.

Assistance from India in the last few months has been given to Sri Lanka in the form of; a USD 500 million oil line of credit; USD 1 billion lines of credit for essentials to be imported from India under negotiation; Currency swap of USD 400 million; Deferral of USD 515 million under Asian Clearance Union; 40,000 MT of fuel on credit; 100,000 Rapid Antigen Test kits and supply of 1,000 tons of liquid medical oxygen.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has been suffering a diesel shortage since February, which led to hours of daily power cuts. At present, Sri Lanka is struggling with acute food and electricity shortages, forcing the country to seek help from its neighbours.

India under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, has always come forward to help the debt-ridden island country. Recently, India has extended 8 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to Sri Lanka amounting to USD 1,850.64 million in the past 10 years.