By Jagdishor Panday
From the article:
US government officials and experts have expressed apprehension about China’s flagship multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.
They have warned it could lead to debt trap and undermine sovereignty in the long run, harming the participating countries’ interest. They also said the BRI, introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinping, lacked transparency and was aimed at fulfilling China’s own security and strategic interests rather than promoting economic development.
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The BRI, which includes 71 countries from Asia, Europe and Africa, is a massive programme aimed at developing hard infrastructure such as transportation system and power grids and soft infrastructure such as signing of trade deals. But recently the Centre for Global Development said eight more Belt and Road countries, excluding Sri Lanka and Malaysia, were at serious risk of not being able to repay loans. The countries are: Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
Read the full article here.
