Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has held talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, one month after visiting India on his first overseas trip since winning election in September.

The new deals ‘signal a deepening of China’s influence in Sri Lanka’ and revive concerns of a debt trap, analysts say.

Sri Lanka and China did not mention the end of the former's moratorium on visits by foreign research vessels but indicated commitment to ‘maritime cooperation’.

China and Sri Lanka have agreed on more investment and economic cooperation, after China's President Xi Jinping met recently elected Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Beijing on Wednesday.

As Sri Lankan President Dissanayake meets Xi Jinping in Beijing, a look at China’s economic grip on Sri Lanka’s economic sovereignty, and the goodwill that India has shown towards its southern neighbo

China will continue to play a "positive role" in the International Monetary Fund and maintain friendly communication with other creditors, in assisting Sri Lanka to achieve financial relief and debt sustainability,

Sri Lanka has secured its biggest-ever foreign investment after signing a deal with Chinese state-run oil giant Sinopec, officials said on Thursday.Sinopec has agreed to invest $3.7 billion to construct a "state-of-the-art oil refinery" with a capacity of 200,000 barrels in the southern Hambantota region, according to the Sri Lanka president's media division."During President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s four-day state visit to China, Sri Lanka marked a significant milestone by securing the largest foreign direct investment to date," it said.A "substantial portion" of the refinery's output would be earmarked for export as part of efforts to shore up Sri Lanka's foreign exchange earnings, a statement said."This major investment from China is expected to bolster Sri Lanka's economic growth while uplifting the livelihoods of low-income communities in the Hambantota area," it added.The port of Hambantota was handed to a Beijing company on a 99-year lease for $1.12 billion in 2017 after Sri Lanka was unable to repay a huge Chinese loan, a controversial decision which raised questions about Chinese investments in the country.Sri Lanka also defaulted on its foreign borrowings in 2022 during a crisis that caused months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.China accounted for more than half the country's bilateral debt at the time of the economic crash.Leftist Dissanayake came to power in September and consolidated his position after his party won by a landslide in snap parliamentary polls last November.His four-day visit to China comes after he was given a red-carpet welcome to India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his first overseas trip as premier in December.In a meeting with Dissanayake on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the two countries "face a historical opportunity to build on the past and forge ahead".The two sides should see ties from "a strategic perspective and build a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future", Xi said, according to state media.Sri Lanka had originally awarded the refinery project in 2019 to an Indian family-owned company based in Singapore, but terminated the agreement after the firm failed to start construction.Officials signalled in 2023 that they would award the contract to Sinopec after another bidder pulled out.Sri Lanka sits astride the world's busiest shipping route, which links the Middle East and East Asia, giving its maritime assets strategic importance.mjw/je/tc/fox

At the invitation of Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, paid a state visit to the People’s Republic of China from January 14 to 17,

China and Sri Lanka have agreed to increase investment and strengthen economic cooperation. This follows meetings between China's President Xi Jinping and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Beijing,

BEIJING (AP) — Sri Lanka and China signed a series of cooperation agreements on Wednesday following talks between their leaders, one month after Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake ...

The newly inaugurated Gwadar airport in Balochistan has been branded a "donation" by the Chinese Communist Party's mouthpiece, Global Times. This even as Pakistan hailed the USD 230-million airport as a "symbol of friendship".

After India emphasised freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and supported the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to the chagrin of China, it became clear that New Delhi had plans and ambitions of containing the communist country in its backyard.