Sri Lanka asks China for help amid its worst financial crisis

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (centre) with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) during a visit to a port city project in Colombo on Jan 9, 2022. - AFP

BANGALORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday (Jan 9) met Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, reaffirming bilateral ties before discussing tourism, investments and the fight against Covid-19.

Wang, who is also China’s State Councillor, arrived in Colombo on Saturday for a two-day visit to commemorate 65 years of China-Sri Lanka diplomatic ties and the 70th anniversary of the Lanka-China Rubber Rice Pact, a 1952 trade agreement under which Colombo supplied rubber to Beijing in exchange for rice.