Sri Lanka elects new president, ‘expected to boost ties with Beijing’

Anura Kumara Dissanayake of Sri Lanka's National People's Power (NPP) was on Sunday elected as the country's new president.

Chinese experts said that his victory will likely further boost relations between China and Sri Lanka, as Dissanayake is expected to adopt a more pragmatic and friendly approach to strengthen ties with China during his term.

Citing figures released by the election commission reported by local TV, Reuters and other media reported on Sunday that Dissanayake won the presidential election. It is the first time in Sri Lanka's history that the presidential race was decided by a second round of counting.

The relationship between China and Sri Lanka has continuously strengthened over the past decade, particularly with the alignment of local development strategies with the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), observers said. 

Under Sri Lanka's new administration, this pair of relations is expected to be further enhanced, as Dissanayake's party shares many ideological similarities with China, and values the country's ties with China, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Sunday. He said although the new administration is expected to maintain a balanced stance between its relations with China and India, the new president is likely to reduce reliance on India and seek closer alignment with China's development strategies, by adopting a more pragmatic and friendly attitude.

Sri Lanka's new administration will likely still prioritize the development of its economy and improving the livelihood of its people amid an upward trend in the country's economic situation, experts said. This indicates that there is significant potential for China-Sri Lanka relations, as China also views the South Asian country as an important node in the BRI, having invested in a number of infrastructure projects, including ports, that have brought tangible benefits to the local population, observers noted.