NEW DELHI: Hailing New Delhi’s role in Sri Lankan debt restructuring, Japanese Ambassador to India Hiroshi Suzuki said that India’s issuance of financing assurances to Sri Lanka at the time of its economic crisis was instrumental in accelerating the process of Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring and that it appreciates India’s engagement and forward-looking approach on the issue.
While speaking at the India-sri Lanka-japan Trilateral Cooperation Event co-hosted by NatStrat, VIF, Pathfinder and CII the envoy also highlighted the role of India, Japan and Sri Lanka in the Indo - pacific region.
“When Prime Minister Kishida visited Delhi and gave an address on the new plan of the free and open Indo-Pacific, he highlighted South Asia as one of the major pillars, one of the priority regions in his new plan. And Japan attaches primary importance to its relations with Sri Lanka and India as indispensable partners in order to realize the vision,” said the Japanese Envoy.
Speaking further about the Sri Lankan debt restructuring, the envoy stressed how ‘Development Finance has been a major challenge for the Indo-Pacific region and how his country attaches importance to transparent and fair developmental assistance.
“In the Indo - Pacific region, there is a huge demand for development finance. Japan has been taking the position which attaches the highest priority to transparent and fair developmental assistance, and development finance, which abides by international rules and standards. More concretely, Japan has been pushing forward what is called quality infrastructure principles, which were indeed agreed upon by all the leaders of the G20 Presidents, and Prime Ministers when they gathered for the Osaka G20 Summit back in 2019,” the envoy said.
“This high-quality infrastructure principle attaches importance to four major aspects. One, transparency, second, openness, third, economic viability and fourth, but not in least, debt sustainability.
So, these are the four key items that Japan feels are important in providing both infrastructure and viable development assistance,” he added.
Talking about debt relief, the envoy stated that ‘ In terms of debt relief, Japan attaches importance to international rules and status’. The envoy also added how important it is to treat all creditors the same way.
“We place the highest priority on transparent and equitable debt restructuring where all creditor entities, creditors countries, and organizations participate. An equitable treatment among all creditors.
“If one country is favoured over another, then the entire debt restructuring will fall apart. Sri Lankan President has made it public that Sri Lankan govt will never treat any country more favourably than others & Japan highly appreciates the public commitment that President made that Crystal clear”, states the envoy. (IANS)
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