President Gotabaya Rajapaksa virtually addressed the opening plenary session of the BOAO Forum for Asia annual conference 2021 held on 20th April 2021 in Bo’ao, Hainan Province, China. This year’s Forum was titled “A world in Change: Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and advance Belt and Road Cooperation” also celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the BOAO Forum.
President Rajapaksa while congratulating the BOAO Forum for the successful completion of 20 years, appreciated China for extending assistance in areas vital to Sri Lanka’s well-being. The President reiterated Sri Lanka’s non-aligned foreign policy. The President further stated that “Maintaining a fair balance between national policies and international shared policies, norms and rules is essential. The sovereignty of independent States should in no way be undermined in the maintaining of this balance”.
The President told the Forum that Sri Lanka welcomes aid from international partners to facilitate the Government’s policy of lifting lower income families out of poverty, improving rural infrastructure, enriching the quality of education to meet future needs and to enhance the use of technology to improve efficacy throughout the nation. He underlined the Government’s other intention of encouraging investments, but not borrowing. He sought the support of the BOAO Forum member countries to encourage more businesses from their countries to consider Sri Lanka as a preferred destination for investments.
The Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote address at the conference via a video link. The other Heads of State who addressed the Forum via video link included the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, Presidents of Chile, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, South Korea, Singapore, Viet Nam and the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malta, Mongolia and New Zealand.
Ambassador, Dr. Palitha Kohona, also attended the session offline in BOAO. He shared his views as one of the four panellists on the topic of “Island Cooperation and Governance” on 19th April 2021. Given the importance of the oceans for islands, he encouraged States there to the Paris Accords to arrest Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, global warming and sea level rise.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Beijing
27 April 2021
