Tokyo, 5 May, /AJMEDIA/
The foreign ministers of Japan and Sri Lanka on Saturday reaffirmed the two countries will work together toward the “transparent and fair” restructuring of the South Asian country’s debt, amid concerns over China’s alleged “debt-trap” diplomacy.
During talks in Colombo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa also told her Sri Lankan counterpart Ali Sabry that Japan will provide a sonar-equipped ship to help with the creation of oceanographic charts, as part of their efforts to boost maritime collaboration, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry.
Last year, some 20 countries — led by Japan, France and India — established the framework for discussions on the course of action for Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring. China, Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, attended the meeting last year as an observer.
After running into debt problems, the Indian Ocean island country handed over majority control of the southern Sri Lankan port of Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned firm in 2017 on a 99-year lease for over $1 billion, and defaulted on its debt in April 2022.
China has often been criticized for employing debt-trap diplomacy, a phrase to describe using loans to developing countries that are ill-equipped to pay them off as leverage to extract concessions from the borrowers.
Kamikawa is on a six-nation trip lasting 11 days through Monday. She has already visited Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and France, and she is set to visit Nepal on Sunday.
