(UTV | COLOMBO) – Chinese Ambassador in Colombo Qi Zhenhong yesterday said China and Sri Lanka have helped each other since the outbreak of the pandemic lifting the traditional friendship between the two nations to new heights.
The Chinese envoy was speaking at the handing over of the second donation of Sinopharm vaccines to Sri Lanka at the BIA yesterday morning. The Chinese ambassador on behalf of the people of China yesterday morning handed over 500,000 doses of Sinopharm Vaccines to Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi at the BIA.
As a good neighbour, good friend and good partner of Sri Lanka through thick and thin, in the past, present or future, as long as something is beneficial to Sri Lanka, China will never be absent, he said.
In continued support for global solidarity against COVID-19, China will provide an additional US$ 3 billion in international aid over the next three years, provide more vaccines to the best of its ability, and support its vaccine companies in transferring technologies to other developing countries including Sri Lanka, and carrying out joint production with them.
“COVID-19 is our common enemy. Building a global community of health is our common goal. Unity and solidarity are the most powerful weapons for fighting the pandemic,” he said.
The Chinese envoy insisted that vaccine sharing is the only magic solution to ultimately defeat the pandemic.
“At the Global Health Summit on May 21, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China has offered US$ 2 billion in aid so far to developing countries as well as free vaccines for 80 countries with 43 other countries importing its vaccines,” he added.
In the video conference on April 27, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and their Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan counterparts reached a series of important consensus and concrete outcomes, on jointly responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and recovering the economy. The arrival of the vaccines today is a direct delivery of their consensus and outcomes.
