Xi Jinping to make historic visit to Sri Lanka

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-09-16

Xi Jinping greets President Abdulla Yameen of the Maldives on Sept. 14. From
the Maldives, Xi will travel on to Sri Lanka. (Photo/Xinhua)

Xi Jinping will be the first Chinese president to make a state visit to Sri Lanka in 28 years when he arrives in the country on Sept. 16, reports Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao. The visit is the third stop of a nine-day, four-nation tour that began with Tajikistan and the Maldives and will end with India.

Wu Jianghao, China's ambassador to Sri Lanka, said Saturday that the visit will set up a guideline and a blueprint for the future of bilateral ties between the two countries, which have "a history of friendly relations" and "high mutual trust in the world political arena."

Wu said Xi will sign more than 20 bilateral agreements during his two-day visit to forge closer cooperation in the political, economic, cultural and social spheres.

One of the major projects to be finalized is the construction of the Colombo port city, a proposed offshore district in Sri Lanka's largest city. More than 276 hectares will be reclaimed from the sea by China Harbour Company Limited, which will invest more than US$1.4 billion under the first phase of the project and develop one third of the land, Wu said, adding that the total investment for the second phase will rise to US$13 billion.

Academics say Sri Lanka has welcomed Chinese investment in the country for both economic and political reasons. Last August, a US$500 million port built by Chinese investors was inaugurated in Colombo, giving China a strong foothold in one of the busiest international shipping routes in the world.

The amount of Chinese investment in Sri Lanka and Beijing's increasing influence in the region is of major concern to India. A spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Ports Authority said however that India does not need to worry about Colombo's new port and may even benefit from it. Sri Lanka will not allow anyone to set up a military base in the area or use the port for any military purposes, the spokesperson added.

Ta Kung Pao said military ties between China and Sri Lanka appear to be strengthening, noting that a vessel from the PLA Navy used the port in Colombo to restock in February this year.

One of the main points of criticism against Sri Lanka remains its human rights abuses — a United Nations report says around 40,000 Tamils died during the last weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. In March this year, China represented one of the 12 dissenting votes when the UN passed a resolution to investigate possible war crimes by both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the final stages of the 26-year conflict.