China and Sri Lanka hold new round of diplomatic consultations

Vice Foreign Minister of China Ambassador Luo Zhaohui together with Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage last week chaired the 11th round of the diplomatic consultations between China and Sri Lanka virtually. 

Ambassador of China to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong and Chargé d'Affaires of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Beijing K. K. Yoganaadan attended the consultations, respectively, from Colombo and Beijing.

Luo Zhaohui said China and Sri Lanka are strategic partners of sincerity, mutual help and everlasting friendship. Against the once-in-a-century changes and COVID-19, the two countries are looking out for and helping each other through the hard times, and seeing continuously strengthened traditional friendship, increasingly deepened mutual political trust, and growing mutually-beneficial cooperation across all fields.  Currently, both countries are facing the double tasks of fighting the pandemic and recovering the economy. China stands ready to lift the bilateral relations to a new high through close cooperation with Sri Lanka. First, maintain high-level exchanges, continue to implement the consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, constantly enhance mutual political trust, and strengthen the exchanges of experience in governance and administration of state affairs. 

Second, deepen cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, including the sharing of experience, R&D and use of vaccines, as well as exchanges in the fields of public health and poverty alleviation. Third, accelerate economic recovery, promote the strategic synergy of the Belt and Road initiative with Sri Lanka’s ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’, expand bilateral economic and trade exchanges, and advance industrial park, port, logistic and other industrial cooperation.

Fourth, tighten cultural and people-to-people ties, and step up exchanges in education, think tanks, tourism, environmental protection and other fields. Fifth, strengthen law enforcement and security cooperation, expand cooperation in counter-terrorism, Belt and Road security and combating of transnational crime, and jointly safeguard the stability of the two countries and the region.  Sixth, continue to support each other on issues involving each other’s core interests, unequivocally oppose unilateralism and hegemony, and jointly protect the common interests of developing countries. Both sides also exchanged views on international and regional issues of common concern. Recalling his many visits to China, Colombage praised China’s economic and social advances, as well as the phenomenal achievements in the anti-pandemic battle, and thanked China for its selfless and valuable assistance in Sri Lanka’s fight against the pandemic, looking forward to further strengthening cooperation with China on vaccines to defeat the pandemic as soon as possible. 

Colombage said, Sri Lanka regards China as an important strategic partner and is willing to work with China to maintain close high-level exchanges, promote the construction of major cooperation projects under the Belt and Road initiative such as Hambantota Port and Colombo Port City, speed up the negotiations on and signing of bilateral free trade agreement, expand exchanges and cooperation in the fields of tourism, education, agriculture and poverty alleviation, and continue to support each other on issues such as counter-terrorism to bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples.