SL President leaves for China for first ever visit

Colombo, Oct 15 On the heels of China’s announcement on the debt treatment agreement fornearly $4.2 billion debts, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe is to leave for China onSunday night.

The main purpose of the visit is to attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International

Cooperation which is scheduled to be held of October 17 and 18. However during his first

ever visit to Beijing after assuming duties as the head of state, President Wickremesinghe is

to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and several political and business leaders.

On Thursday Sri Lanka’s Finance Ministry announced that Sri Lanka and the Exim Bank of

China has agreed on key principles to restructure 4.2 billion US dollars in loans.Having lent

around $7 billion, China is Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor ahead of Japan and India.

The debt restructure deal is to help in getting past the IMF's first review in the coming weeks

and in securing the release of a second IMF tranche of about $334 million. In a desperate

measure to come out of its worst ever economic crisis, Sri Lanka entered to a $2.9 billion

bailout package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September 2022 and started

debt negotiation with key bilateral creditors including Japan, India and Paris Club creditors.

However creating a major barrier for the process China evaded coming to the table together

with other creditors.

In his recent statements President Wickremesinghe has described China in a positive light but

complaining against the West and the United States.

Attending a Global Summit in Berlin last month Sri Lanka President reiterated the need to

have a comprehensive dialogue between the West and China, the United States and China

and the European Union and China as a robust international plan to address the global

challenges anticipated in 2024.

He even criticized that the great power rivalries and geopolitics have been an emerging threat

to developing countries like Sri Lanka for an open access to trade, investment, capital and etc.

In an opening speech of the 'Berlin Global' Dialogue in Berlin, Germany, President

Wickremesinghe said “China's Belt and Road Initiative has been labelled as a cohesive

program, and the participating countries like Sri Lanka have been looked upon with

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