China Congratulates Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Says Ready for 'Greater Progress' in Ties with Sri Lanka

[beijingwalker]

China Congratulates Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Says Ready for 'Greater Progress' in Ties with Sri Lanka
Rajapaksa defeated Sajith Premadasa in a hotly contested election on Sunday, marking the return of the powerful Rajapaksa dynasty known for its pro-China tilt.
PTI

Updated:November 18, 2019, 4:37 PM IST

Sri Lanka's President-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa gestures at the end of the addressing the nation, at the presidential swearing-in ceremony in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka November 18, 2019. (Image: REUTERS)

Beijing: China on Monday congratulated Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his election as the new Sri Lankan President, saying that it is ready to work with him for "greater progress" in bilateral strategic ties and ensure "high-quality" projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Rajapaksa defeated Sajith Premadasa in a hotly contested election on Sunday, marking the return of the powerful Rajapaksa dynasty known for its pro-China tilt.

Asked for his comment on Rajapaksa's victory, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang told media here that "Sri Lanka has successfully held Presidential election, which is a major political agenda at home. We are pleased to see that and offer our sincere congratulations to Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his success".

"China and Sri Lanka are strategic cooperative partners with sincere mutual assistance and everlasting friendship," he said.

"We stand ready to on the basis of respect, equality and mutual benefit work with the new leadership and the government for high-quality BRI cooperation and greater progress in bilateral ties to bring more tangible benefits to two countries and their people," Geng said.

Sri Lanka, in recent years has carried out various development projects with an estimated USD 8 billion loans mostly secured from China under the multi-billion BRI, the pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at expanding China's influence all over the world with a chain of infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments.

The huge Chinese loans sparked concerns globally after Sri Lanka handed over its strategic Hambantota port to a state-run Chinese firm in 2017 for a 99 years' lease as a debt swap amounting to USD 1.2 billion.

The Colombo Port City project also funded by China is currently being built along the city's coastline on 269 hectares of reclaimed land.
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https://www.news18.com/news/world/c...-progress-in-ties-with-sri-lanka-2391375.html

 

[samv]

The most inept, corrupt, pathetic SL regime under Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe has been given a stunning slap in the face by the Sri Lankan voter.

 

[W.11]

lmao, srilanka seems to have learnt nothing from its hambantuta debacle. If you watch srilanka videos made by tourists, they would tell how badly srilankan economy has been hit due to debt.

regards

 

[Han Patriot]

lmao, srilanka seems to have learnt nothing from its hambantuta debacle. If you watch srilanka videos made by tourists, they would tell how badly srilankan economy has been hit due to debt.

regards

Nobody put a gun on your head to take a loan. If you are corrupt, you are corrupt, simple as that. It's just business, i believe China will give some debt relief and in return ask for military access

 

[W.11]

Nobody put a gun on your head to take a loan. If you are corrupt, you are corrupt, simple as that. It's just business, i believe China will give some debt relief and in return ask for military access

thats what im indicating, its surprising why srilankans have elected the brother of a guy who plunged his own country into such financial crises through china and now china promising for ''better relations''.

regards

 

[beijingwalker]

china promising for ''better relations''.

regards

China promotes better relations with every newly elected foreign leaders.

 

[Han Patriot]

thats what im indicating, its surprising why srilankans have elected the brother of a guy who plunged his own country into such financial crises through china and now china promising for ''better relations''.

regards

You need to remember China gave them loan due to request from Rajapaksa to boost economic activity in Hamba..in the long run if the ports and facilitues were Chinese managed, it will earn money, but alas, the locals are just too corrupted. We helped SL rid off the Tamil menace, thats a bigger problem for Lankans. Srisena is also corrupted, so both are fcked up, might as well choose a hero.

 

[W.11]

You need to remember China gave them loan due to request from Rajapaksa to boost economic activity in Hamba..in the long run if the ports and facilitues were Chinese managed, it will earn money, but alas, the locals are just too corrupted. We helped SL rid off the Tamil menace, thats a bigger problem for Lankans. Srisena is also corrupted, so both are fcked up, might as well choose a hero.

thats why you should read my post, the issue is not corrupted officials, even china has its fair share of very corrupt officisals, issue is the current elected guy who's brother ws the one responsible for the situation srilanka is in now, it seem very strange why lankans would give this family another the chance, he will probably put the last nail in srilanka economy with his pro china policies.

regards

 

[casual]

thats what im indicating, its surprising why srilankans have elected the brother of a guy who plunged his own country into such financial crises through china and now china promising for ''better relations''.

regards

Majority of Sri Lankans don't agree with you. His brother is even more popular but is barred from seeking another term. Maybe don't believe everything you watch online.

 

[Han Patriot]

thats why you should read my post, the issue is not corrupted officials, even china has its fair share of very corrupt officisals, issue is the current elected guy who's brother ws the one responsible for the situation srilanka is in now, it seem very strange why lankans would give this family another the chance, he will probably put the last nail in srilanka economy with his pro china policies.

regards

You got my point wrong, i am telling you certain investment make sense but need time. There you go, if Chinese investment were that bad, SL folks wuddnt have voted for another Rajapaksa regime. They saw how India manipulated their politics and trying to colonize them. China is a better partner.

 

[W.11]

There you go, if Chinese investment were that bad, SL folks wuddnt have voted for another Rajapaksa regime.

the election was a close contest so the guy by a very thin margin, and probably is a new face which the srilankans wanted and maybe other ethnic/social policies probably which had to be considered as well but if the chinese investment was so good, how did srilanka lost its own port which it wanted to develop to the chinese themselves and why srilankan economy is in such a bad condition?

regards

 

[Godman]

the election was a close contest so the guy by a very thin margin, and probably is a new face which the srilankans wanted and maybe other ethnic/social policies probably which had to be considered as well but if the chinese investment was so good, how did srilanka lost its own port which it wanted to develop to the chinese themselves and why srilankan economy is in such a bad condition?

regards

The margin is pretty big with Gotabaya leading by over a million votes. The only thing that kept Sajith's percentage falling to 30s was the Tamil votes. Tamils are less familiar with Gota so I believe his reputation for ruthlessness scared them and Muslims didn't like his nationalistic stance and more extreme Muslims hate his Muslim representative Ali Sabry.

Also Gotabaya is not Mahinda. Gota is known for his ruthlessness but also his extreme efficiency doing massive projects with limited debt.

For example the new Defence HQ is being built with the money by selling the lands of old HQs to major investors like Shangri-La

He also created the Trace Expert City from a abandoned Rail yard. Now there is research being done in EV tech, AI, Smart Agri etc. This is one of the companies in it doing research on Smart Agri tech

This is a company that does research on EV tech in the same place

Gota as president will be far more efficient than Mahinda.

 

[Han Patriot]

the election was a close contest so the guy by a very thin margin, and probably is a new face which the srilankans wanted and maybe other ethnic/social policies probably which had to be considered as well but if the chinese investment was so good, how did srilanka lost its own port which it wanted to develop to the chinese themselves and why srilankan economy is in such a bad condition?

regards

Becoz it was managed by lankans, the economy was in a bad shape even before the debt was due. It was mismanagement by the lankans. You need to understand cosco is the top 3 shipping company on earth, they just need to divert trafgic from sg and hambantomta can boom. You are too short sighted. Colombo port is already profitable, China had a big plan for lannka until they ousted rajapaksa. Now the development cam continue.

 

[W.11]

Becoz it was managed by lankans

makes no sense mate, it was chinese who made the investment, so it should have been china responsible for it/monitoring it/making feasiblity study. It was probably a loan which the lankans acquired and were unable to pay it because they thought that chinese loan would make a good business but it didn't generate that amount of money, hence going in dept.

Even when you give loans as a bank you ascertain that the party receiving it is capable of paying them back with interest.

regards

 

[Han Patriot]

makes no sense mate, it was chinese who made the investment, so it should have been china responsible for it/monitoring it/making feasiblity study. It was probably a loan which the lankans acquired and were unable to pay it because they thought that chinese loan would make a good business but it didn't generate that amount of money, hence going in dept.

Even when you give loans as a bank you ascertain that the party receiving it is capable of paying them back with interest.

regards

If that was the case, then every bank investment would make money right? This is not a bank investment perse, its a Chinese government loan, not private. We have the obligation to make it profitable when we manage it, thats why we took it over. If you let them continue managing it, it will end up as anoother India.