Xi says wants to deepen BRI cooperation with Sri Lanka under new leader
The Hindu
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulates Sri Lanka's new leader, emphasizing cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday (September 23, 2024) said he hoped to broaden cooperation with Sri Lanka under his Belt and Road infrastructure initiative (BRI) as he congratulated the island nation's new leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Mr. Dissanayake took his oath at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on Monday, vowing to restore public faith in politics.
The country is emerging from a years-long economic collapse blamed partly on struggling high-debt Chinese mega-projects coordinated through the BRI, the massive infrastructure project that is a central pillar of Mr. Xi's bid to expand his country's clout overseas.
"I attach great importance to the development of China-Sri Lanka relations and am willing to work with Mr. President to continue our traditional friendship [and] enhance mutual political trust," Mr. Xi said in a message to Mr. Dissanayake, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Mr. Xi said he hoped bilateral cooperation under his flagship BRI would "bear more fruit", CCTV added.
He said Beijing would "promote the steady progress of sincere mutual assistance between China and Sri Lanka as well as our age-old strategic cooperative partnership, and create more benefits for the peoples of both countries".
Western critics accuse China of using the BRI to enmesh developing nations in unsustainable debt to exert diplomatic leverage over them or even seize their assets.
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