Sri Lanka and China could cooperate within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, turning the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port into two major engines to boost Sri Lanka’s economic development, pushing for the country’s industrialization, and enhancing the country’s capacity for independent development, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Wednesday, during a phone conversation.

The call was made on Gunawardena’s suggestion and Wang assured that the two countries are strategic cooperative partners of sincere mutual assistance and lasting friendship.

“Over the past year, the two countries joined hands to fight against the pandemic and supported each other, and their bilateral relations maintained a strong development momentum,” Minister Wang Yi said.

Noting that this year marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Wang said that China had won the victory in ending extreme poverty and achieved great results in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and would embark on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country.

“China’s development means a growing force for peace and the growth of developing countries, which will provide more development opportunities for developing countries, including Sri Lanka. We must make solid progress in cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, turning the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port into two major engines to boost Sri Lanka’s economic development, pushing for Sri Lanka’s industrialization, and enhancing the country’s capacity for independent development,” he said.

Minister Gunawardena said Sri Lanka regarded China as its closest friend and thanked China for its long-term assistance for Sri Lanka’s economic development, improvement of people’s livelihood, and dealing with internal and external challenges. The Sri Lankan FM highlighted that the Colombo Port City, Hambantota Port were key projects for Sri Lanka’s future development, and welcomed more Chinese investment, businessmen and tourists.

“Some Western countries, including the United States are using alleged human rights issues to intervene in the internal affairs of developing countries including Sri Lanka. They use the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council as a platform to exert pressure on developing nations. I hope that China will continue to uphold justice and stand with developing countries,” Gunawardena said.

Wang said that some Western countries are used to pressuring developing countries on the pretext of human rights, adding that China firmly opposed it, and was willing to unswervingly support Sri Lanka to jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, the basic norms governing international relations, and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter including non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs.

Gunawardena warmly congratulated China on the 100th anniversary of the CPC’s founding and that China had under the leadership of the CPC, completely lifted itself out of poverty, made great development achievements, and significantly improved the livelihood of its people.

Gunawardena said China had also led other countries on the way towards common development, and made vital contribution to human civilization. Sri Lanka appreciated China’s fair stance on human rights issues and was willing to join hands with China to safeguard fairness and justice in regional and international affairs. “Those allegations about Xinjiang and Hong Kong are just baseless. We steadily support China on the Xinjiang, Hong Kong related issues and the One-China Policy”, he added.