USAID chief calls on China to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — The head of the U.S. government aid agency has called on China to help Sri Lanka and other nations that had borrowed heavily from Beijing with debt restructuring, not just with lines of credit and emergency loans. Samantha Power, the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, contrasted India’s critical measures to aid Sri Lanka during its worst economic crisis with the two decades during which China offered what she says were opaque loan deals at higher interest rates and financed infrastructure projects that often served little practical use. She says it’s essential that China participate in debt relief transparently and on equitable terms with all other creditors. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and has suspended repayment on its $51 billion foreign loans.