Amid growing concern in New Delhi over the increasing presence of China in Sri Lanka, visiting Vice Foreign Minister of China Liu Zhenmin on Thursday said: “Sri Lanka will always find a friend in China.”
At a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Mr. Liu said: “We will continue to support Sri Lanka in the [United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)] and the [United Nations Security Council (UNSC)].”
A statement from the President’s office said Mr. Rajapaksa thanked China for its support in the past decades, and particularly to some of the landmark infrastructure projects coming up in Sri Lanka currently.
China, in the last decade, has invested heavily in Sri Lanka’s infrastructure. In August 2013, a massive Chinese-built port, at a cost of $ 500 million, opened in Colombo, about a year after another deep-sea port in Hambantota, funded and built by the Chinese became operational.
