Colombo, July 6: China has expressed its ‘resolute support’ for Sri Lanka’s ‘just proposition’ to keep the Indian Ocean a peace zone. A joint communique on the 11-day visit of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, released simultaneously in Peking and Colombo to-day, contained the Chinese support to the proposal adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in December last year and added that the proposal “reflects the urgent desire of Afro-Asian countries to safeguard the national independence and State sovereignty and to oppose aggression and expansion of super powers.” In the communique, both countries “expressed their concern over the present situation in the South-Asian sub-continent and reiterated that outstanding issues in the region should be settled through peaceful negotiations on principled basis of complete equality, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and mutual benefit and accommodation and without resorting to the use of threat of force.” Mrs. Bandaranaike said the Chinese Premier Mr. Chou En-lai, in their “friendly, cordial and candid” talks during the visit also noted “that co-operation between the two Governments and peoples had expanded and advanced over a wide spectrum of areas including political, economic trade as well as in the fields of culture and sports.” The joint communique also announced the Chinese government’s decision to provide Sri Lanka with long-term interest-free loans but it did not disclose the loan amount.
