On November 13 2004, President of Sri Lanka Mrs. Kumaratunga met with the visiting Chinese State Councilor Chen Zhili at Colombo.

During the meeting, Mrs. Kumaratunga said that the Sri Lanka-China relationship is very friendly. The government and people of Sri Lanka are very grateful of the Chinese Government for its valuable aid during the past 50 years. The cooperation between the two countries has covered all areas. The Sri Lanka Government hopes and believes that this cooperation will continue to develop and expand. It is in line with the common interest and hope of the two peoples.

Chen Zhili said that China and Sri Lanka are close neighbors. The friendly exchanges between the two peoples can be dated back to ancient times. The mutual trust of diplomatic ties has been strengthening, economic and trade cooperation of mutual benefit has grown fruitful results, exchanges and cooperation in all fields has kept expanding. The Chinese side thanks the Sri Lanka Government for its consistent support on issues such as Taiwan, Tibet and Human Rights.

Chen noted that Sri Lanka is an important cooperation partner of China in South Asia. The Chinese Government attaches importance to the China-Sri Lanka relations and will unswervingly uphold the policy of keeping friendly relations with Sri Lanka.

On the same day, Chen also met with Foreign Minister Kadirgamar of Sri Lanka. The two sides both believed that the two countries are highly complementary and have huge potentials in fields like economy and trade, infrastructure construction, tourism, science and technology, culture and education. The two sides agreed to search new ways of cooperation, continue to encourage mutual investment, expand exchanges of personnel and make efforts to always inject new vitality into the traditional friendly cooperation of mutual benefit between the two countries in order to benefit the two peoples.

Chen arrived at Colombo and began her official goodwill visit to Sri Lanka at November 11.