President Rajapaksa commiserates with PM Scott

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in a telephone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, expressed empathy with Australians as they battle one of the worst bushfires in the country’s

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Australian Prime Minister  Scott Morrison

history. 

Bushfires in Australia at this time of the year are a common hazard. However, the extent of the damage and the ferocity of the fires this year are quite severe and have already claimed the lives of over 30 Australians, including those of rescue workers. It is feared that the lives of half a billion animals have been lost, which is said to be a conservative estimate.

It is expected that the worst is yet to come with January and February usually being the hottest months in Australia. While all the states in Australia are affected by wildfires, the worst hit is New South Wales where over 2,000 homes have been ravaged. In early December last year, due to smoke, the quality of air in Sydney was rated as 11 times the hazardous level.

President Rajapaksa sympathised deeply with families that lost loved ones to the fires, the President’s Media Unit said. With Sri Lanka having suffered its own natural disasters such as the 2004 tsunami and floods, President Rajapaksa said that the Sri Lankan people fully understood the horror Australian citizens were suffering at this present moment.

As the world-renowned Ceylon Tea is a favorite and comforting beverage of Australian citizens, President Rajapaksa hopes that the tea that Sri Lanka is donating will help raise the spirits of Australians in these trying ti