UPDATE: SL, China agree to deepen their cooperative partnership

September 17, 2014 08:33 am

Sri Lanka and China on Tuesday agreed to deepen strategic and defence cooperation, following talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat.

The countries would step up high-level exchanges, including those of defence authorities, with the aim of deepening the ‘China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership,’ according to a joint statement released by President Rajapaksa’s office.

Sri Lanka signed nearly 30 agreements with China, including one launching negotiations on a free trade agreement. The leaders authorised the $1.4-billion port city development project, Beijing’s latest investment in Sri Lanka, and cleared the decks for several infrastructure projects besides launching the final phase of a power plant in Noracholai, located in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province.

Sri Lanka has had strong ties with China, which has consistently backed the country at the U.N. Human Rights Council where it faces a U.S.-backed resolution that calls for an international probe into its rights record. Reiterating China’s position, President Xi — in a letter published on the front page of Sri Lanka’s state-run Daily News on Tuesday — said that China “resolutely opposes any move by any country to interfere in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs under any excuse.”

Ever since Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009, sections in New Delhi have been worried about the increasing influence China seems to have over the island nation. However, foreign policy analyst and Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Dayan Jayatilleke observed that Sri Lanka’s policy makers had a tendency to overplay the ‘China card.’ -

Sri Lanka and China signed the following agreements to further cooperation between the two nations:

1. Plan of Action of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the People’s Republic of China to Deepen the Strategic Cooperative Partnership

Signed for Sri Lanka: Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs

Signed for China: Mr. Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs

2. Treaty Between the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters

Signed for Sri Lanka: Prof. G. L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs

Signed for China: Mr. Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs

3. Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on Launching the Negotiations for a China - Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement

Signed for Sri Lanka: Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development

Signed for China: Mr. Gao Hucheng, Minister of Commerce

4. Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Signed for Sri Lanka: Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Senior Minister of International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning