TOKYO -- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday called for the international community to help his country overcome a crisis that has pushed it to the brink of economic collapse, with mounting debt, inflation and social unrest roiling the South Asian nation.
"We urgently require the assistance of our friends in the international community to ensure ... our immediate needs," Rajapaksa said in a prerecorded speech delivered on the first day of Nikkei's Future of Asia conference, held in Tokyo and online.
