On August 21, 2015, Premier Li Keqiang sent a message to Ranil Wickremesinghe, congratulating him on his inauguration as the new Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
In the message, Li Keqiang expressed that China and Sri Lanka are time-honored good friends and partners. Over the recent years, the two nations have established a strategic cooperative partnership featuring sincere mutual assistance and everlasting friendship, and bilateral cooperation in various fields is deepening, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples. The friendly cooperation between China and Sri Lanka is in line with the fundamental interests of the two sides and is the common aspiration of the two peoples. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the relations with Sri Lanka and stands ready to make joint efforts with the new government of Sri Lanka to push China-Sri Lanka strategic cooperative partnership towards constant new progress.