Lankan FM dismisses protest against Chinese projects as 'dissent'

Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake on Wednesday dismissed the local opposition to Chinese projects as dissent, pointing that such agitations represent only a minimal faction and are not country specific.

When asked about Sri Lanka joining One Belt One Road (OBOR) in view of the recent protests against the Hambantota port being developed by China, the visiting minister told reporters, "Protests happen all over, it's not specific to any country. There is only a fraction of opposition in Sri Lanka and these people protest projects by India, China, U.S. or Maldives. I don't think the noise makes any difficulty. It only gives opportunity for everybody to give their dissenting view."

Over earlier reports that Sri Lanka rejected China's request to dock one of its submarines in Colombo in order to appease India, the minister said that the country is opposed to any offensive weapons movement noting that the move was not to target any country.

Commenting over trust restoration between India and Sri Lanka over solving the prevailing fishermen issue, Karunanayake informed that Colombo has already released 42 of the 142 Indian boats in its custody and will be swift in further resolving the issue in cooperation with the Indian side.