{"id":106570,"date":"2020-09-13T23:19:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T05:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106570"},"modified":"2020-09-13T15:13:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T22:13:54","slug":"chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-is-creating-a-new-continent-eurasia-says-veteran-lankan-communist-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/13\/chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-is-creating-a-new-continent-eurasia-says-veteran-lankan-communist-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative is creating a new continent \u201cEurasia\u201d says veteran Lankan communist leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy NewsIn.Asia<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">DEW Gunasekera said that the Lankan communists convinced Colombo to sign the Rubber-Rice Pact with China in 1952 and to recognize Communist China in 1957<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newsin.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/DEW-Gunasekera-612x375.jpg\" alt=\"China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative is creating a new continent \u201cEurasia\u201d says veteran Lankan communist leader\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Colombo, September 13 (Xinhua): China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), of which Sri Lanka is an early participant, is beneficial to developing countries and creates multi-polarity in world affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) D.E.W. Gunasekera told Xinhua that the China-Sri Lanka ties have reached a new high due to the implementation of the BRI and massive Chinese investment in infrastructure and energy projects in the island country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BRI, a reference to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, is aimed at building a trade, investment and infrastructure network that connects Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.<ins><\/ins><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gunasekera, who served as the general secretary of the CPSL for 16 years until his resignation in August, said China\u2019s development has enabled a multipolar world with new economic centers emerging in Africa, Latin America and Eurasia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A new continent called Eurasia is emerging due to the Belt and Road Initiative,\u201d Gunasekera said. The Asian economy is the vanguard of the world economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooperation with China is imperative for developing countries like Sri Lanka so as to safeguard national interests and make use of China\u2019s massive market, Gunasekera said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said that the CPSL played a significant role in convincing the then government of Sri Lanka to sign the Rubber-Rice Pact with China in 1952, and establish the formal diplomatic ties with China in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commenting on China\u2019s development, Gunasekera recalled that he was part of a CPSL delegation to visit Shenzhen in 1980s, when only basic infrastructure had been built in the fishing village in south China, which has now been transformed into a global technology hub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy NewsIn.Asia DEW Gunasekera said that the Lankan communists convinced Colombo to sign the Rubber-Rice Pact with China in 1952 and to recognize Communist China in 1957 Colombo, September 13 (Xinhua): China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), of which Sri Lanka is an early participant, is beneficial to developing countries and creates multi-polarity in world [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}