China is willing to work with Sri Lanka for the better development of the two countries’ strategic cooperative partnership featuring sincere mutual assistance and everlasting friendship, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday.

In the message to congratulate Sri Lanka on the 70th anniversary of its independence from the British colonial rule in 1948, President Xi recalled the traditional friendship and mutual assistance between the two countries, and said that the two sides have conducted pragmatic cooperation within the framework of joint construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, achieving fruitful results.

"I pay high attention to the development of China-Sri Lanka relations, and I am willing to make concerted efforts with President Sirisena to push the China-Sri Lanka strategic cooperative partnership of sincere mutual assistance and long-standing friendship to keep achieving greater development in the better interest of the two countries and the two peoples," Xi said.

China attaches great importance to its relations with Sri Lanka, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday in a message sent to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ranil Wickremesinghe, to congratulate Sri Lanka on the occasion.

Within the framework of the initiative on the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, China wishes to consolidate the traditional friendship with Sri Lanka, strengthen mutual political trust, deepen practical cooperation, and push bilateral relations to a new level, said Li.