Sri Lanka and China have begun discussions on preparations to commemorate two anniversaries falling in 2027 — 70 years of diplomatic relations and 75 years of the Rubber-Rice Pact, the Daily Mirror reported on Saturday.
Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath met Chinese Ambassador Wei Huaxiang to discuss bilateral cooperation and the arrangements for marking the two milestones. The meeting treated the anniversaries as an occasion to recognise the long-standing relationship between the two countries and to strengthen ties further.
The two dates
The Rubber-Rice Pact was signed in 1952, a barter agreement under which Sri Lanka supplied rubber to China in exchange for rice at a time when both countries were outside the main currents of Cold War trade. Formal diplomatic relations followed five years later, in 1957.
That sequence — a trade agreement preceding diplomatic recognition — is why the two anniversaries fall in the same year despite marking events five years apart.
From rhetoric to planning
Ambassador Wei had already flagged both anniversaries publicly. At a Colombo reception marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in September, he named the same two milestones and returned repeatedly to the 1952 pact as his defining example of solidarity between the two states.
What is new in Saturday’s filing is that the two governments are now said to be discussing preparations rather than simply noting the dates, and that the discussion is taking place at foreign-minister level rather than in an ambassador’s address.
Wei arrived in Colombo in August and has since held meetings across the Sri Lankan political spectrum, including, on the same day as this one, with opposition National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa.
Not reported
The filing does not say when or where the meeting took place, whether any specific commemorative events, visits or exchanges were agreed, or whether a joint committee or timetable has been established. It gives no direct quotation from either the Minister or the Ambassador, and carries no statement from the Foreign Ministry or the Chinese Embassy setting out their own accounts.
It does not report whether other bilateral matters — debt restructuring, Belt and Road projects, or Chinese research vessel visits — were raised alongside the anniversary planning.
Update: NewsFirst corroborates
A second verified newsroom has now filed on the meeting. NewsFirst gives the same account — the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 75th anniversary of the Rubber-Rice Pact, discussed at a meeting between Minister Vijitha Herath and Ambassador Wei Huaxiang, with the anniversaries identified as an opportunity to celebrate the two countries’ friendship and strengthen bilateral relations.
The two filings agree on every particular and neither adds detail the other lacks. In particular, NewsFirst also declines to date or place the meeting, quotes neither participant, and does not say what was agreed — so the gaps noted above remain open rather than closed by a second account.
