Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the People’s Liberation Front (JVP), was inaugurated as the President of Sri Lanka on September 23.
Dissanayake, who stood as the candidate of the Jathika Jana Balawegaya (National People’s Power), an alliance of 28 left wing political parties and mass organisations of workers, women, youth, ethnic groups, and others, initiated by the JVP, led the poll on September 21 with 42.31% of the vote. As no candidate secured 50%, for the first time in Sri Lanka’s history, a second round of voting was held, in which Dissanayake emerged victorious with 55.89%. As a result, the leader of a Marxist political party has become the country’s head of state for the first time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping was among the first world leaders to extend congratulations to Dissanayake. Xi said that he prizes the development of China-Sri Lanka relations and stands ready to work with President Dissanayake to carry forward the traditional friendship and enhance political mutual trust.
Dissanayake led a delegation of the JVP to China at the invitation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in December 2023. During this visit, the CPC declared its willingness to further intensify friendly exchanges with the JVP, strengthen mutual learning, carry forward the traditional friendship between China and Sri Lanka, and promote China-Sri Lanka relations for greater development.
Dissanayake highly appreciated the remarkable achievements that the Chinese people have made under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the CPC. He thanked the CPC and the Chinese government for their critical support when Sri Lanka was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis. He expressed willingness to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the CPC, learn the successful experience in party building and state governance from the CPC, and work with the Chinese side to promote cooperation between Sri Lanka and China.
The following article was originally published by the Xinhua News Agency.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent a message to Anura Kumara Dissanayake to congratulate him on his inauguration as president of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Xi hailed China and Sri Lanka as traditional friendly neighbors, saying that since the establishment of diplomatic ties 67 years ago, China and Sri Lanka have always understood and supported each other, setting a good example of friendly coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries of different sizes.
Xi said that he prizes the development of China-Sri Lanka relations, and stands ready to work with President Dissanayake to carry forward the traditional friendship, and enhance political mutual trust.
He also pledged to work with the Sri Lankan leader to facilitate more fruitful high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and make steady and long-term progress of China-Sri Lanka strategic cooperative partnership featuring sincere mutual assistance and ever-lasting friendship so as to better benefit the people of the two countries.
I am from Vancouver,Canada and i wanted to say that this is Good News.I didn’t know that Sri Lanka had a new Gov’t. About a decade ago a lot of Sri Lankans here in Canada were protesting about living conditions in Sri Lanka. Now things are improving in that country with a progressive Gov’t and help from China. A lot of countries are beginning to find out that China helps them unlike the USA and its Allies. I hope more countries sides with China. It will make the world a better place to live in.