Representatives of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom are expected to visit the country, she added.
"Rosatom still wants to build this nuclear power plant in Sri Lanka today. The discussion of the project is under way, I hope it will come to a successful conclusion, representatives of Rosatom should visit Sri Lanka," Liyanage said.
Talks on Loan for Fuel Purchase
Sri Lanka and Russia are negotiating a loan for fuel purchase and Colombo is waiting for Moscow’s decision, Ambassador Liyanage told Sputnik.
“Actually, Russia is a very friendly country with Sri Lanka. And we got help from Russia during our difficult times earlier. Russia has given us a credit loan for the war [civil war in Sri Lanka], during our conflicts, and they helped us in many ways. And in a similar way, our president [former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa] … requested credit loan … for fuel from Russia. And still we are continuing the discussions," Liyanage said.
In 2022, Sri Lanka experienced its worst economic crisis since the country gained independence in 1948.
The crisis was caused by a shortage of foreign exchange resulting from decrease of the tourist flow due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. It left the country unable to buy enough fuel, with people facing acute scarcity of food and basic necessities, heating fuel, and gas. Many regions had power outages.
On July 6, 2022, Rajapaksa appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide Sri Lanka a loan to buy oil from Russia to ease the fuel crisis in the country.