By Shinya Oshino
From the article:
TOKYO -- The foreign minister of Djibouti said the East African country intends to help promote China's Belt and Road Initiative, but is also cautious about overreliance on China in light of Djibouti's ballooning debts linked to Chinese investment.
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"We need sophisticated infrastructure. The only country that provides financing is China," [Mahmoud Ali] Youssouf said of his country's dependence on Beijing.
That dependence is seen most clearly in Djibouti's swelling foreign debt, 80% of which was owed to China in 2016, according to the Center for Global Development, a U.S. think tank. World Bank figures show that Djibouti's external debt was equal to 86% of its GDP in 2017.
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