BEIJING: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi Tuesday held meetings with Sri Lankan leadership during his stopover in Colombo after ending his visit to Africa, Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Wang Yi met with Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena in Colombo and exchanged in-depth views on China-Sri Lanka relations and international and regional issues of common concern. Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Geng Shuang while responding to a question about the visit of Wang Yi to Sri Lanka said that China and Sri Lanka were traditionally friendly. The two countries were strategic partners of sincere mutual assistance and friendship for generations. He said that in recent years, the two sides had promoted pragmatic cooperation in various fields under the framework of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” and achieved fruitful results. “China is willing to work with the new Sri Lankan government to inherit traditional friendship, strengthen political mutual trust, connect development strategies and push bilateral relations to a new level,” he added. It may be mentioned that Wang Yi’s visit is the highest level interaction between the two countries so far after Sri Lanka elected its new President and Government. – Agencies
