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Sri Lanka’s prime minister says that he will quickly prepare an economic reform program and seek approval from the International Monetary Fund. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says urgent action is needed because global inflation and the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could hurt the ability of countries to allocate enough aid to Sri Lanka. The country is facing its worst economic crisis in recent memory. Wickremesinghe says authorities have reached agreement on basic reform concepts with the IMF and that he plans to have the economic reform program ready within two weeks.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed hopes for global cooperation on climate change, hunger and war as dozens of climate activists demonstrated in the Swiss town of Davos. Both came on the last day of the World Economic Forum's meeting of global elites. It ended Thursday with many words but little concrete action to solve the world’s most pressing crises. The Davos gathering has been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, rising food and fuel prices, and signs that governments aren’t doing enough to fight global warming. That has doused many moods in the face of a can-do spirit by many innovators and entrepreneurs in Davos.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha says a new U.S.-backed economic pact is further proof of how important and relevant Asia is today. U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced earlier this week that 13 countries have joined the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. It's a new trade pact that will help the United States work more closely with Asian economies on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy and anticorruption efforts. Together the countries represent 40% of the world’s GDP. Prayuth, who is in Tokyo to attend a conference, stressed the need to increase economic growth by keeping markets open and inclusive.

Iran’s foreign minister sat before an audience of Western business executives and policymakers at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, fielding questions about why Iran has yet to condemn Russia for its invasion in Ukraine and why efforts to revive its nuclear deal have stalled. It was a rare opportunity for many in the audience to hear directly from Hossein Amirabdollahian, who was interviewed Thursday by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. When pressed on why Iran hasn't condemned its ally Russia for the war in Ukraine, he said Iran has, just as it had wars “against Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine.” On stalled nuclear talks, he says Iran is “keeping the window of diplomacy open.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is in Bosnia’s capital to reaffirm the U.K.’s commitment to the ethnically divided Balkan country amid growing fears of malign influence from Russia. Truss was meeting with top officials in Sarajevo on Thursday. She announced a U.K.-backed Western Balkans investment package aimed at providing $100 million for infrastructure and energy projects in the region by 2025. Truss said the signs of “Russian meddling here today” threatened to take the Balkans back “those darks days” of the 1990s when interethnic conflicts killed thousands of people. Bosnia's postwar power-sharing system perpetuates a polarized and venomous political climate, and the leader of the country's Serbs is staunchly pro-Russia.