china, japan, and south korea to association of southeast asian nations. independent journalist benjamin norton says, i am f policies for sri lanka have benefited foreign powers, not the people of that country. the u. s. government as complete domination over both the international monetary fund and the world bank. the u. s. government is the only member that has veto power over the decisions of the bodies. and we've seen that throughout the global south in particular, the i m f in the world bank have been involved in imposing structural adjustment programs. that force countries to cut social spending, privatize their natural resources, and then sell off their assets to western corporations. usually the i m f demands that a country cut, pensions, reduce the minimum wage, basically implement policies that are bad for the people of the country and are good for the interest of foreign corporations. and it's very likely we don't know, of course, what's happening inside the talks between the sri lankan government and the i m f. but it's very likely that the i m f was demanding these conditions that

china, japan, and south korea to association of southeast asian nations. independent journalist benjamin norton says, i am f policies for sri lanka have benefited foreign powers. instead of the countries people. the u. s. government has complete domination over both the international monetary fund and the world bank. the u. s. government is the only member that has veto power over the decisions of the bodies. and we've seen that throughout the global south in particular, the i m f in the world bank have been involved in imposing structural adjustment programs that force countries to cut social spending. privatizing these conditions that were simply unacceptable for any self respecting sovereign government of sri lanka. we look at the history of the i m f. conditionality is that have been imposed on countries like sri lanka. they have been very arduous and they have been very undemocratic demanding that the country violate its own economic sovereignty in the interests of foreign corporation. so if we can learn anything from history, i think we can conclude that it's very likely that the sri lank