China has set up an ‘Emergency Reserve’ at Chengdu to speedily dispatch supplies to some countries in South Asia, including Sri Lanka.
The following is the text of a statement issued by the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry: “Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China Dr. Palitha Kohona attended the opening of the China – South Asia Emergency Supplies Reserve in Chengdu on 09 July, 2021. The emergency reserve was the result of a zoom meeting convened by Foreign Minister Wang Yi in April and attended by the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Given the regularity with which natural disasters seem to afflict the South Asian region, the creation of the emergency reserve would enable the reserve to dispatch emergency supplies with the least delay. Today the mobilisation of emergency supplies takes too long.