Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will pay an official visit to China from April 6 to 9 on the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, a foreign ministry spokesperson has said.
Chinese leaders will meet and hold talks with Wickremesinghe and exchange opinions on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, spokesperson Hong Lei was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.
“We commend the Sri Lankan government’s positive policies towards China and are ready to jointly consolidate the traditional friendship, and deepen pragmatic co-operation through this visit, pushing the China-Sri Lanka strategic co-operative partnership to new heights,” Hong said.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has said that parliament will be briefed on the deals Sri Lanka is expected to sign with China and India.
Wickremesinghe told members of the ruling United National Party that Sri Lanka and China are to discuss an economic plan soon, Xinhua reported.
He also said that Sri Lanka and China are expected to sign a free trade agreement this month.
Wickremesinghe said that an agreement will also be signed with India and parliament will be briefed on the agreements in order to ensure the process is transparent.
“The draft texts of the agreements will be submitted to parliament and through parliament to the public,”
he said.
The prime minister said that Sri Lanka was in talks with the European Union to regain the EU generalised scheme of preferences plus trade concession, while it expects the ban imposed on Sri Lankan fisheries products by the EU to be lifted by the end of this year.
Ranil Wickremesinghe
