The Chinese Embassy in Colombo says that China has saved Sri Lanka from the ‘debt trap’ of the West.
The embassy said in a Twitter message that China had come to the rescue when the Sri Lankan government was preparing to lease the Hambantota port in 2017 and had saved Sri Lanka from a debt trap.
According to China, Sri Lanka had to lease the Hambantota port in 2017 due to a lack of dollars for the International Sovereign Bond (ISB) due at that time. According to the embassy, the Hambanthota port was not given to China to repay a loan owed to the Exim Bank of China.
In that sense, the Chinese embassy further stated that it has helped save the country from the international debt trap that Sri Lanka was to be trapped in by taking over the Hambantota port on a lease basis in 2017.
The embassy further explained that Sri Lanka has so far borrowed only 10% of the total foreign debt, or $ 3388.2 million, from China, citing Central Bank reports.
