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Profile: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe

Xinhua, April 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will pay an official visit to China from April 6 to April 9.

The 67-year-old Wickremesinghe graduated with a bachelor's degree in law. He became the minister of Youth Affairs and Employment in 1978. Later on , he was given the portfolio of Education.

In 1994, he began to lead the United National Party (UNP).

Having served as the prime minister from 1993 to 1994 and from 2001 to 2004, he was appointed as the prime minister for the third time in January 2015.

In August later that same year, Wickremesinghe won the general elections and became the prime minister for the fourth term.

Wickremesinghe has paid six visits to China, and he made a working visit to Beijing as the prime minister in 2003.

In 2012, he visited China as the UNP chief at the invitation of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Endi