COLOMBO, Jan 13: Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will leave for China on Monday on a three-day visit at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, his second overseas visit – the first being to India – since assuming office in September last year.
During the visit, Dissanayake will hold bilateral talks with President Xi on a range of areas of mutual interest and will also meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China Zhao Leji.
“The visit to the People’s Republic of China will further strengthen the longstanding ties between the two countries,” the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said.
A host of issues, including permitting Chinese “research vessels” regarded as spy ships by India; Sri Lanka’s debt commitments to China, stated to be Colombo’s largest creditor, and expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investments are expected to figure in Dissanayake’s talks with Xi.
During his visit, the two countries will sign seven MoUs covering agriculture, tourism, education and technology.
Sri Lanka expects the visit would result in the digitisation of Sri Lanka’s two state TV channels – Rupavahini and ITN.
Sri Lanka would also seek Chinese assistance to complete the central expressway, which has been stalled for over a decade.
The talks would also cover the Chinese industrial zone around the southern port of Hambantota.
Qin Boyong, a top Chinese official who visited Dissanayake immediately upon his return from Delhi in December, said the Chinese companies were eagerly waiting to set themselves up for business at Hambantota.
Dissanayake, once a bitter critic of India, chose Delhi for his first visit abroad.
During his visit to India in December, where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dissanayake assured New Delhi that Colombo would not permit its territory to be used “in a manner that is detrimental to the interest of India,” in an apparent reference to China.
For China, which expanded its strategic ties with Sri Lanka during the pro-Beijing leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickramasinghe with the acquisition of Hambantota port for 99 years’ lease as a debt swap followed by the development of Colombo Port City project, Dissanayake is a new generation leader representing new realities of his island nation. (PTI)
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