Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday appointed a 16-member interim Cabinet, including two of his brothers, and gave the major portfolios of defence, finance and trade to them while inducting two Tamils as a sign of reaching out to the minority community.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, 74, got the key portfolios of defence and finance while the President’s eldest brother Chamal Rajapaksa, 77, got trade and food security ministries.
“This is an interim government,” Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who took over as the country’s President on Monday, said during the swearing-in ceremony of the ministers.
He said the ministers of state would be appointed next week.