Chinese leader Xi Jinping said relations between China and Sri Lanka faced a “historical opportunity” to foster ties, in talks with the island nation’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Wednesday.
“China-Sri Lanka relations face a historical opportunity to build on the past and forge ahead,” Xi told Dissanayake during the bilateral meeting in Beijing, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The two sides analyze their relations from a “strategic point of view and build a China-Sri Lanka shared future network. “
The leftist Dissanayake’s stopover in China comes after President Narendra Modi greeted him on the Indian red carpet on his first overseas visit as prime minister in December.
Dissanayake came to power in September and consolidated his strength after winning a landslide victory in November’s snap parliamentary elections.
China and India are vying for the Indian Ocean region.
Sri Lanka sits astride the world’s busiest shipping route, which links the Middle East and East Asia, giving its maritime assets strategic importance.
But Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign loans in 2022, a crisis that led to months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.
China accounted for more than half of Sri Lanka’s bilateral debt at the time of the economic crash.
In December 2017, unable to repay a huge Chinese loan, Sri Lanka gave up its Hambantota port in the south of the island to a Beijing company in a 99-year lease for $1. 12 billion, raised doubts about Chinese investments in the country.
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