China's Xi says hopes to deepen ties with new Sri Lankan president

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday he hoped to deepen ties with Sri Lanka as he congratulated the island's new leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka on his inauguration, state media reported.

"I attach great importance to the development of China-Sri Lanka relations and am willing to work with Mr. President to continue our traditional friendship (and) enhance mutual political trust," Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi said he hoped that bilateral cooperation under his flagship Belt and Road (BRI) initiative would "bear more fruit", CCTV reported.

He said Beijing would "promote the steady progress of sincere mutual assistance between China and Sri Lanka as well as our age-old strategic cooperative partnership, and create more benefits for the peoples of both countries".

Dissanayaka, a self-avowed Marxist, took his oath at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on Monday, vowing to restore public faith in politics after anger over the country's economic crisis.

That collapse was partly blamed on struggling high-debt Chinese mega-projects coordinated through Beijing's BRI, the massive infrastructure project that is a central pillar of Xi's bid to expand his country's clout overseas.