COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has sought advice from India over its strategy on purchasing oil from Iran in the light of tightening US sanctions during bilateral talks.
According to a statement published by the office of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country's Petroleum Minister Arjuna Ranatunga has sought information on how India will act in the case of tighter sanctions from Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Sri Lankan leading economic news agency 'Economynext' reported.
The US has unilaterally withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and is set to reimpose the second wave of fresh sanctions on the Islamic Republic on November 5.
Swaraj had explained India's strategy on India and has said Sri Lanka could also follow the process and promised further information.
India along with Sri Lanka is part of a the Asian Clearing Union, a kind of net settlement system set up by a group of countries with central banks with inconsistent policy that operates failing soft-pegs with the US dollar and therefore have persistent foreign exchange shortages.
Sri Lanka's ageing state-run refinery, originally built by the Soviet Union, works best with Iranian light crude, with other heavier crudes not generating enough light distillates.