Harini Amarasuriya Meets Xi in High-Stakes Dialogue

COLOMBO (News 1st); Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women, where Prime Minister Amarasuriya is representing Sri Lanka.

President Xi welcomed the Prime Minister and reaffirmed the long-standing traditional friendship between China and Sri Lanka, emphasizing that the two nations have consistently built their relationship on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. He described the bilateral partnership as a model of mutual respect and win-win cooperation between countries with different systems and backgrounds.

“China always regards Sri Lanka as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy, and stands ready to work with Sri Lanka to carry forward the traditional friendship, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and jointly build a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future, to better benefit the peoples of both countries,” President Xi stated, expressing readiness to deepen cooperation and build a China–Sri Lanka community with a shared future, aimed at delivering tangible benefits to both peoples.

President Xi reiterated China’s support for Sri Lanka’s efforts to safeguard its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, and to pursue a development path aligned with its national conditions. He pledged China’s continued assistance in economic development, particularly through high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

The leaders discussed expanding collaboration in key sectors including:

Port economy

Modern agriculture

Digital and green economy

Tourism

Law enforcement and security

President Xi also stressed the importance of joint efforts to combat cross-border crimes, such as gambling and fraud, and called for enhanced coordination within multilateral frameworks like the United Nations.

He emphasized the need to promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive globalization, safeguarding the common interests of the Global South. 

Prime Minister Amarasuriya conveyed sincere greetings from President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to President Xi. She said that President Xi’s speech at the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women is inspirational, and demonstrates China’s important leadership role in promoting the global women’s cause. Sri Lanka highly values its relations with China, firmly adheres to the one-China policy, and actively supports and participates in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. She thanked China for its valuable support for Sri Lanka’s economic and social development, and expressed her hopes to learn from the experience of Chinese modernization and further enhance cooperation with China to achieve new development for Sri Lanka. She said that the four global initiatives proposed by President Xi are of great significance in the current turbulent international landscape, and that Sri Lanka will work with China to put them into practice and safeguard the common interests of the Global South.