Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has bid farewell to the outgoing Ambassador of China to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, expressing appreciation for his contribution to strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Rajapaksa said it had been a pleasure to bid farewell to Ambassador Qi and his spouse, and thanked them for their friendship and dedicated service to Sri Lanka during the envoy’s tenure, Ada Derana reported.
The former president extended his best wishes to Qi for his future work and reaffirmed his commitment to what he described as the longstanding friendship between Sri Lanka and China.
The exchange forms part of a round of farewell calls by the ambassador, who is due to conclude a posting of close to six years — one of the longer recent tenures in the role — at the end of July. Qi met Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa at a courtesy call in Colombo on Tuesday, and earlier this month travelled to Kandy to pay his respects to the Mahanayake Theras of the Malwathu and Asgiriya Chapters.
Relations between Beijing and Colombo expanded significantly during Rajapaksa’s presidency from 2005 to 2015, a period that saw Chinese financing for a series of large infrastructure projects, including the Hambantota port and Colombo Port City. Those loans later became central to the debate over Sri Lanka’s external debt burden.
China remains one of Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditors and a significant source of investment, and was among the official creditors involved in the country’s debt restructuring.
Beijing is expected to name a successor ahead of the handover.
