Another victim of China's debt trap

Yes, the latest one on the verge of debt trap of China is our neigbour Srilanka. Bankruptcy is ogling on the country. Srilanka is facing heavy inflation due to curbs on imports due to the forex shortage. 

China is the culprit this time too for direct and indirect reason. The direct reasons are the debt provided by China to Srilanka on interest to built infrastructure as well as to develop the port and the indirect reasons are the setback to Sri Lana's tourism industry due to China originated Covid, which used to be the backborn for their economy.

One of the contemporary hotel bill (April 2022) from Colombo Sri Lanka

If the experts are to be believed Srilanka will run short of forex reserves by end of Jan or 1st week of Feb 2022 due to still staggering tourism. Under the circumstances Srilanka is on the magnanimity of China to go soft towards its debt repayment schedules which though Srilanka had appealed a few days ago, China is yet to respond. 

Srilanka is looking towards India and IMF too for some heavy favor to help bail them our from this crisis. IMF though had provided some assistance in the form of loans previous month, it is very mere just good enough to postpone the crisis, it won't be a remedy to the same. 

After tourism was shut down, Sri Lanka's economy shrank by a record 3.6% in 2020, its worst in 73 years. however, the Sri Lankan bank remained optimistic, hoping for a bounce back  in 2021 which proved wrong only to witness fatal 2nd wave. 

The crop production too are severely effected due to Sri Lankan government restrictions in the use of urea. It is believed that more than 50 million of Sri Lankan citizens had fallen below poverty line due to the Covid related Lockdown crisis. 

With Sri Lankan Bank hardly has the forex available for a couple of week's imports, Sri Lanka is meekly expecting the a miracle in the form of magnanimous response from China which is just like searching frogs during summer season. 

It is surprising the world is similar everywhere. When a few selfish Indian citizens fails to learn a point from its past tragic history with respect to invasion of Muguals, Portugal, Dutch and British, a few countries in this world still depend on China for their short term benefits not realizing not only the long term trap but also the opportunistic attitude to play to their selfish advantages.

The chances of China providing a long rope to Sri Lanka with respect to Sri Lanka's liability towards China seems bleek as it would rather prefer to captilize this opportunity to put more pressure to succumb them for unethical favours against India. I strongly feel India should rather captilize this opportunity to help consolidate our ties with Srilanka with necessary steps which could prove not only beneficial mutually but we both end up an all time best friend for ever. 

Sudesh DJ Vashishtha 

Indore MP India

18th Jan 2022 

9:50 pm

Sudesh DJV writes on contemporary subjects in the form of Articles and poems which are in the interest of the Nation in particular and for Mankind in general.