High-level Lankan teams to visit China and India

PM will meet Chinese president; presidential advisor will hold 'connectivity' talks in Delhi

Two high-level government visits take place next week, with Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena heading to China and the President’s Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser Sagala Ratnayake due in India.

The Prime Minister will be in China from March 25–29, accompanied by Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe and the Prime Minister's Secretary, Anura Dissanayake. He will have meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Qiang and the third-highest member of the Chinese Communist Party.

He will also be the chief guest at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference being held at Boao in South China’s Hainan Province. The event will focus on how the international community could work together to deal with challenges and shoulder responsibility, a statement issued by the organisers said.

National leaders, government officials, heads of international organisations, businesspeople, experts in various fields, and the media have been invited, it said. Panel discussions will be on the global economy, social development, international cooperation and scientific and technological innovation.

Meanwhile, from March 27 to 28, Mr. Ratnayake will lead a delegation to New Delhi. The delegation will include the Secretaries to the Ministries of Transport and Environment, the General Manager of Railways, the Customs Director-General and the Director General of the Chief of Staff’s Office.

The purpose of the visit is to “kickstart the discussion on land connectivity," official sources said, adding that further details of who the team would meet in India were not available.

In a joint statement issued after President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to New Delhi in July last year after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two leaders agreed: “To establish land connectivity between Sri Lanka and India for developing land access to the ports of Trincomalee and Colombo, propelling economic growth and prosperity in both Sri Lanka and India, and further consolidating the miliennia-old relationship between the two countries. A feasibility study for such connectivity will be conducted at an early date.”

It also said the two countries would cooperate to construct a multi-product petroleum pipeline from the southern part of India to Sri Lanka “with an aim to ensure affordable and reliable supply of energy resources to Sri Lanka”. India is already receiving preferential treatment in renewable energy projects in the North.

The delegation is also taking with them a report submitted by the Power and Energy Ministry.