India uses UN platform to take a dig at China’s 'debt' model

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday used the United Nations platform to send a subtle message on the Chinese development partnership model that results in huge debts and juxtaposed it with its own model of partnership that does not lead to ‘indebtedness.’

At a UN meet in New York, India's Permanent Envoy TS Tirumurti asserted that India has always strived to foster global solidarity across the world with "our development partnership efforts fully respecting national priorities and ensuring that our assistance does not create indebtedness." Under President Xi Jinping China rebranded development partnership model as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and pushed huge loans at high interest rate.

Tirumurti made the remarks at a joint meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Besides development partnership model, Tirumurti launched an indirect jibe on Pak-sponsored terror and asserted that regressive activities like support to terrorism and aggression have increased worsening the socio-economic impact of COVID-19.

The statement on indebtedness coincided with former Maldivian President and Parliamentary Speaker Mohamed Nasheed's scathing attack in the Maldivian Parliament on China over burgeoning debt as he claimed that the country will not be able to afford these repayments even if they sell their grandmother’s jewellery. The island nation owes a whopping 3.5 billion dollars in debt to China.

Nasheed made his remarks while finalizing the annual budget on Wednesday calling it "totally unaffordable."

“Discussing (the) 2021 budget in Majlis today. Debt repayments next year will amount to 53% of government revenue. Over 80% of debt repayments will go to China. Totally unaffordable. Even if we sell our grandmother's jewellery, we won't be able to afford these repayments,” Nasheed tweeted.

Most of the money was loaned to Male is in the form of government-to-government loans, private loans guaranteed by the Maldives government through “sovereign guarantees” and funds forked out to Maldivian state enterprises.

Former President of Maldives Abdulla Yameen was close to China. But In 2019, the Maldivian strongman was jailed for money laundering activities linked to island nation’s lucrative tourism industry.

This July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a subtle message to India’s neighbours as well as the Indian Ocean nations about China’s debt-trap diplomacy, said that in the name of development partnerships, nations were forced into dependence partnerships.

“History has taught us that in the name of development partnerships, nations were forced into dependence partnerships. It gave rise to colonial and imperial rule. It gave rise to global power blocks. And, humanity suffered,” the PM had said.

Last December the PM questioned China’s debt diplomacy labelling it as a tool used by Beijing to force a debt-ridden nation to relinquish land and sovereignty if they are unable to clear it on time.

Sri Lanka, another neighbour in the South, is also reeling under Chinese loans. Similarly, some South East Asian states have also incurred huge debt due to BRI projects. A number of African states and a few Central Asian states are also faced with same challenge. However, some states including Maldives have launched pushback and either not accepting new projects or limiting scope of BRI projects.