Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With China extending yet another USD 700 million “credit facility” to bailout its “all-weather” bankrupt ally Pakistan on Friday, the US has expressed “deep concern” over Beijing’s debt-trap diplomacy to trap poor countries and encircling India, prompting it to hold “serious talks” with New Delhi.
On Friday, Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that the Board of China Development Bank (CDB) has approved a USD 700 million credit facility to the cash-strapped South Asian country. Earlier, China had similarly debt-trapped Nepal and Sri Lanka, destroying their economies.
The US is “deeply concerned” that the loans China is giving to India’s immediate neighborhood—Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka—may be used for coercive leverage, the media, quoting a senior State Department official, said on Saturday.
“Concerning the Chinese loans to countries in India’s immediate neighborhood (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal), we are deeply concerned that these loans may be used for coercive leverage,” Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, told reporters in Washington ahead of the India trip of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken next week.
The top American diplomat will be in New Delhi on a three-day official visit from March 1 to 3.
Lu said the US is discussing with countries in the region, including India, to make their own decisions and not feel compelled by any outside partner.
“We are talking to India, talking to countries of the region about how we help countries to make their own decisions and not take decisions that any outside partner, including China, might compel,” Lu said.
Responding to a question, he said the US and India have held “a serious conversation” on the issue of China.
“We have had serious conversations about China, both before the latest scandal over this surveillance balloon and afterward. So, I fully expect those conversations will continue,” he said.
Asked about the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)—comprising the US, India, Japan, and Australia—Lu insisted this group is not a military alliance.
“The Quad is not, in fact, an organization that is against any single country or group of countries. The Quad stands for promoting activities and values that support the Indo-Pacific, a free and open Indo-Pacific, that’s prosperous and supports the values that we as these four countries represent,” he said.
About India’s military relationship with Russia, he said, globally, Russia is having a really difficult time fulfilling orders for military contracts.
“We see plenty of evidence of that around the world. And if you look at press reporting, I think you can see the Indians are also wondering whether Russia will be able to provide for its defenses,” Lu said.
He strongly refuted the allegations that India avoids even the use of the word “war” when it comes to Russia.
“India uses the word “war” all the time,” he asserted.
“You heard Prime Minister Modi say, in August, now is not the era for war. You heard External Affairs Minister Jaishankar say in September, at the UN, that we need this war to end through diplomatic means and along the principles of the UN Charter, reinforcing territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said.
“And then, in November you heard the Indian Defense Minister say the threat to use nuclear weapons by Russia is totally unacceptable and at odds with the basic tenets of humanity. So, I don’t particularly see a reluctance to use the word ‘war.’ I think they use it all the time,” Lu added.