At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held today (23), a reporter asked: On the 22nd, US Assistant Secretary of State Thompson told reporters that Secretary of State Pompeo will visit Sri Lanka next week.
The United States encourages Sri Lanka to consider the transparent and sustainable economic development options provided by the United States instead of discriminatory and opaque practices.
The United States believes that Sri Lanka has reached the time to make a choice and urges Sri Lanka to make difficult but necessary decisions, especially on the issue of China’s influence on Sri Lanka. What is China’s comment?
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that the remarks of the US officials were full of Cold War mentality and hegemonic mentality, which fully exposed the United States’ consistent behavior of wanton interference in other countries’ internal affairs and forcing small and medium-sized countries to choose sides.
Zhao Lijian said that China and Sri Lanka are traditional friendly neighbors. For a long time, the two countries have developed relations with each other based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and carried out friendly cooperation on the basis of equal consultation, mutual benefit and win-win results, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese and Sri Lankan people.
We will work with Sri Lanka to unswervingly expand and deepen the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.
Zhao Lijian emphasized that China believes that countries, big or small, have the right to independently develop foreign relations based on their own interests.
Any attempt to prevent countries from carrying out normal cooperation and exchanges through pressure and coercion will not succeed. Eventually, they will be cast aside by history and become the laughing stock of the international community.
