On May 22, 2014, President Xi Jinping met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka in Shanghai.

Xi Jinping expressed, during President Rajapaksa's visit to China last year, we jointly announced to upgrade China-Sri Lanka relationship to a strategic cooperative partnership and made a long-term plan for the development of China-Sri Lanka relations. Over the past year, all consensus reached by the two sides have been implemented, cooperation in various fields has made solid progress, and the bilateral relations have entered the fast track. The Chinese side regards Sri Lanka as a reliable friend and an important cooperative partner in South Asia and in the Indian Ocean region. China firmly supports Sri Lanka for its efforts to safeguard national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and opposes any interference in internal affairs of Sri Lanka under the pretext of human rights issues.

Xi Jinping said that the Chinese side is willing to maintain high-level exchanges and to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges with the Sri Lankan side. Sri Lanka is an important cooperative partner of China in building the Silk Road On the Sea of the 21st Century and in establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The two sides should focus on pushing for early results in marine economy, port construction and maritime security cooperation and start the Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations as soon as possible. The Chinese government encourages the Chinese enterprises to invest and develop business in Sri Lanka and to participate in the projects of industrial parks, special economic zones, electricity, roads and railways.

Rajapaksa expressed that the Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Shanghai achieved a great success. The Sri Lankan side is grateful for the friendship and support from the Chinese side. The help from China is very important to promoting economic and social development of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan side firmly supports China to safeguard national unity and fight against terrorist forces. He invited President Xi Jinping to pay a state visit to Sri Lanka at a convenient time. The Sri Lankan side hopes to actively participate in the initiative of the Silk Road On the Sea of the 21st Century and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, to strengthen maritime cooperation, to accelerate bilateral FTA negotiations, and to promote infrastructure construction and personnel exchanges between the two countries. The Sri Lankan side is ready to conduct cooperation with the Chinese side in cyber security.

Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Yang Jiechi and others were present at the meeting.