COLOMBO, Jan 13, (Asia Free Press): Sri Lanka has praised China for its donation of medical equipment to Sri Lanka’s health sector in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, reported CGTN.
Senior Sri Lankan officials conveyed appreciation to the Chinese Foreign Ministry for its good-will gesture, which further consolidated close cooperation between the two countries, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry added that China has extended generous assistance to Sri Lanka to help it battle COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The latest Chinese donation includes multipara monitors, high flow oxygen nasal therapy machines, oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders and other items, the statement said.
The donation is valued at about 635,000 U.S. dollars, the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka said on its Twitter account.
Since March last year, Sri Lanka has detected 593,072 positive COVID-19 patients, it stated.
Besides, China also assisted Sri Lanka in other sort of fields as both the countries are major partners in the region. China and Sri Lanka marked its 65 years of diplomatic relations last week when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Sri Lanka, where he also seeks to advance China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a flagship project of China, as the island nation looked to Beijing for help as it tries to rescue itself from a foreign currency and debt crisis. The Colombo International Financial City and the Hambantota Port are flagship projects under China’s BRI, which Sri Lanka has agreed to actively participate in.
