Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Cheng Xueyuan has assured Prime Minister Ranil Wickremeisnghe that China has no military purpose involving Sri Lanka and Beijing has no reason to interfere with internal affairs of Sri Lanka. 

The ambassador called upon the Sri Lankan Prime Minister to exchange views on joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative including the Hambantota Port.

Ambassador Cheng had briefed the Prime Minister about President Xi Jinping's keynote speech in the recent-concluded Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference, and reaffirmed that China firmly upholds and supports economic globalization.

"China attaches great importance to the relations with Sri Lanka, and wishes to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries to actively push forward the practical cooperation under the framework of BRI, so as to bring tangible benefits to the two countries and to their people," the Ambassador had said. 

In response, Wickremesinghe had said the issue of Chinese militarization in Hambantota did not even arise and the Sri Lankan Navy was the sole authority concerning the security of the area. He said some local and international media deliberately painted a wrong picture about the issue to create what he termed an 'unnecessary hype'. 

The Prime Minister also added that he, and the government of Sri Lanka, were strongly supportive of China's Belt Road Initiative (BRI).