‘President keen not to upset relations with China over fertiliser dispute’

By Ifham Nizam

President Ranil Wickremesinghe wished to resolve the Chinese Bio fertilizer shipment dispute without causing any harm to the friendly relations between China and Sri Lanka, a senior minister said.

Responding to queries, Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that the position of the President on the issue was to resolve it in a way that did not damage the friendly relations between the two nations.

The minister added: “We will continue to make our best efforts to sort it out.”

He also said it had been decided to carry out the process of settling the dispute with the help of the Foreign Ministry. “Since I took over the Ministry of Agriculture, I have discussed this fertilizer shipment issue on several occasions. Due to this issue, the goodwill between the two countries was seriously damaged. I wanted to get the chemical fertilizer instead of the bio fertilizer consignment, but that company does not produce other fertilizers.

Therefore, it was decided to find out whether USD 6.5 million paid to this company could be recovered.

“They export their products to many countries, and the company says its reputation was damaged by Sri Lanka’s allegations. Therefore, a situation has arisen where our country has to bear the loss. No matter who was involved in this transaction, the burden of the 6.9 million USD paid for that fertilizer ship was ultimately borne by the people of our country.”

Amaraweera also said that China was a country that always stood by Sri Lanka.

It was decided to make a request to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take steps to settle the dispute amicably. I look forward to further discussions in this regard with the participation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Ambassador.”