New dimension in China-Lanka relations

By Manjula Fernando

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to upgrade the relations between the two countries to a one from friendship to a strategic cooperative partnership, during the former’s successful four-day visit which concluded on Thursday.

‘According to the new consensus, the two countries will maintain high-level exchanges, enhance political communication, and support each other’s efforts in safeguarding national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. They will respect each other’s choice of development path and strengthen exchanges of experience in state governance,’ Xinhua reporting on the meeting between the two leaders said.

Chinese President and First Lady Peng Liyuan welcomed President Mahinda Rajapaksa accompanied by First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday.

While consolidating cooperation in law enforcement security and defence, the Two Presidents vowed to jointly crack down on the “three forces” of terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as transnational crimes and drug trafficking.

The two countries also agreed to beef up communication and coordination in international and regional affairs including on issues such as climate change and non-traditional security threats.

The discussions also touched on safeguarding the rights and interests of developing countries. Sri Lanka’s President said he supported China to deepen cooperation with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.After the talks, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed a joint communique and attended the signing ceremony of a number of cooperative documents.

During the landmark four day visit he held fruitful discussions with the Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday and Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

The Chinese Premier said, “The two sides have developed a healthy and stable relationship since they established diplomatic ties,” adding that with increasingly deepening friendship between the two peoples, the bilateral relationship has become a ‘model for peaceful coexistence and mutual beneficial cooperation’ between countries.

He added, “With the presidents of China and Sri Lanka upgrading the two sides’ relations to a strategic cooperative partnership on Tuesday, the bilateral relationship has entered a new phase.”

Noting China and Sri Lanka enjoy broad scope for cooperation with complementary economies, the premier said the two sides need to strengthen cooperation in trade and investment, outline a bilateral economic cooperation plan, carry out discussions on a free trade area and activate a balanced trade in its development.

Li also suggested the two sides strengthen infrastructure cooperation, implementing major projects on ports, railways and highways, expand pragmatic cooperation and research on aerospace and marine science, and broaden cooperation in culture, education and tourism.

President Rajapaksa met Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao on Thursday at a conference of Asian political parties that ran under the theme “Promote green development and build a beautiful Asia together,” in Xi’an, the capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. It was a forum of political parties from Asian and Oceanic countries.

Prof. G.L. Peiris speaking at the event “Sri Lanka: Promising Business Destination” a trade promotion event organized at the Intercontinental Hotel by Sri Lankan Embassy and the Export Development Board on Tuesday explained a gathering of leading Chinese investors and representatives of the corporate sector of China, the main advantages Sri Lanka is able to offer today, as a destination for investment and trade. Key officials of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade participated in the event.

Earlier Chinese Prime Minister assured the President that the trade imbalance, which is now in favour of China, will soon be addressed to benefit Sri Lanka as well.Some of the assistance offered by China will come in the form of investment, soft loans and outright grants. Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris, Monitoring MP for the Ministry of External Affairs Sajin de Vaas Gunawardena, Ministers Wimal Weerawansa and Douglas Devananda, Parliamentarians A.H.M. Azwer and Namal Rajapaksa, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Dr. P. B. Jayasundara, Chief-of-Staff Gamini Senerath and Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in China Ranjith Uyangoda accompanied the President at the meetings.

Turning point in Sri Lanka’s diplomatic relations

President’s spokesperson, Mohan Samaranayake said the significance of the visit to China marks a turning point in Sri Lanka’s diplomatic relations.

“China has been a consistent friend of Sri Lanka even before full diplomatic relations were established in 1957. It was elevated to a high level to reap maximum benefits to the country due to President Rajapaksa’s far sighted diplomatic policy and understanding of current global order.”

He said the fact that this was elevated to the level of a state visit by China itself, from a simple official visit as it was earlier expected, signifies the level of cooperation and goodwill China has shown our tiny nation.

“There are handful of powerful and rich countries on the top of the world order. Most of these countries in the past were colonial masters. Although colonialism does not exist any longer these handful of countries want to dominate the world.”

He said it is in that objective that they promote separatism under the guise of Human Rights and other newly found international norms and in this context China, a modern day economic power house considering Sri Lanka as a strategic partner has many meanings.

“With an extent of 9.4 million sq.km or population of 1.3 billion human resource, it is fast becoming the world’s no. 1 economic power. According to many projections and surveys within less than two decades time China will overtake America as the leading economic force in the world.”

China is a permanent member in the UN Security Council. On the military front it is a nuclear power. Sri Lanka is a country coming out of a 30 year long conflict which has ravaged our economy and infrastructure. Still the separatist forces are very much active. These are supported by many countries and organizations. He said in this backdrop Sri Lanka is fortunate to have a leading super power by its side as a strategic cooperative partner.

“One of the challenges the Sri Lanka facing is fast development of its war ravaged economy and the infrastructure. For this China has offered assistance in multitude of sectors, already there are landmark assistance such as Mattala Airport and Hambantota Port.”

Samaranayake however stressed that the growing relations between Sri Lanka and China will not indicate a deviation from Sri Lanka’s long-standing foreign policy of Non-Allignment, but rather it was a sign of strengthening ties with countries of mutual trust and understanding.