The Sri Lanka-China Friendship Association (SLCFA) requests the new Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong to consider possibilities of implementing the world renowned “Chinese Government’s Eight Principles for Economic Aid and Technical Assistance” in Sri Lanka, which was earlier proclaimed by Premier Zhou Enlai in Ghana in 1964.
“Such an economic principle coupled with anti-hegemonic foreign policy would definitely re-establish warm feelings in our people to withstand any alien conspiracy launched to stigmatise friendship between our two peoples, the SLCFA Chairman Ananda Goonatilake said.
Issuing a press release to welcome the new Chinese Envoy to the country, Goonatilake said that Ambassador Zhenhong is an experienced diplomat, who headed the China Institute of International Studies and has an excellent understanding of the complex realities in the Indian Ocean.
His presence in Colombo as China’s Ambassador is very crucial at this moment when the distant powers along with their regional allies are attempting to militarise the Indian Ocean, the press release stated.
“The new Ambassador takes charge at a time when the actions of the USA, India and several other countries are rapidly militarising the Indian Ocean and is applying pressure on smaller nations to come into agreements that are against the non-aligned principals.”
The increasing militarisation of the Indian Ocean does not bode well for international cooperation and world peace as most of the world’s trade passes through this region and the increased military presence of one group would invite a counterforce of relative size.
Realising the dangers of this development, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has expressed his desire of making Indian Ocean a Zone of Peace and the SLCFA hopes that Ambassador Qi Zhenhong takes the initiative in helping Sri Lanka achieve this objective, the SLCFA Chief said.
“We could expect the new Ambassador to be well aware that when former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandarnaike took the lead in making the UN declare the Indian Ocean a Zone of Peace, and when Chairman Mao Zedong was the core of the Chinese Nation and Premier Zhou Enlai guided the international relations, that China was the main supporter of the proposal and galvanised the members of the Non -Aligned Movement (NAM),” he added.
According to Goonatilake, people of Sri Lanka have warm feelings towards China not only because of its economic, security and diplomatic assistance to us but also because it has inspired Sri Lanka to remain non-aligned and without being a strategic partner of any foreign power.
“Though China is geographically a distant country, it has been the blood brother of our people more than any of Sri Lanka’s close neighbours, fundamentally because of her socialist, anti-hegemonic national principles and foreign policy strictly based on Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence,” he said.