The Sri Lankan Prime Minister visited China, the Indian Foreign Minister visited Japan, and now that the Sri Lankan Prime Minister has just left, Japan seems to want to learn from India and has begun to put pressure on Sri Lanka.
At present, Sri Lanka owes a total of US$12 billion in debt, of which commercial lenders account for nearly 50% of the external debt, and China is the largest creditor of Sri Lanka with US$3.4 billion, followed by Japan. One of the purposes of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister's visit to China is to resolve Sri Lanka's debts, so as to improve the country's financial situation, mainly hoping to improve the financial situation through cooperation with China, judging from the statements of China and Sri Lanka, the negotiations are relatively smooth, during which the two countries also signed nine cooperation agreements, according to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Gunawardana, China has also promised to help Sri Lanka develop the strategically important Hambantota port and Colombo airport, and will further assist the country in solving the debt problem。
As early as 2023, Japan, France, and India formed an organization called the "Creditors' Conference" in order to collect debts, but China did not join this small circle.
It is precisely because China has not joined that Japan is now telling Sri Lanka that their standards are different from China's, according to the Japanese media "Nikkei Asia", although Sri Lanka has repeatedly asked Japan, hoping to reduce part of the debt, but Japan did not agree to this request, Japan asked Sri Lanka from 2028, with 2% interest to start repaying debts to the countries in the "creditors' meeting". From 2028 to around 2042, the repayment period is 15 years, and not a single cent is missing.
Not only that, but Japan also believes that Sri Lanka's debts are similar to those of China and Japan, and that China cannot provide Sri Lanka with a "debt trap", but should work with them to urge Sri Lanka to repay the money.
Japan's so-called "debt trap" provided by China has no explanation at all, and even Sri Lanka itself has publicly denied it, stressing that the handover of the Hambantota port to China is purely commercial and does not involve military aspects.
In a nutshell, China understands Sri Lanka's difficulties and helps solve the debt problem, while Japan sees China as "buying people's hearts with money" and believes that China's preferential terms on Sri Lanka's debt are intended to allow Sri Lanka to hand over the famous Hambantota port to China so that China can engage in military projects in the country. Just like India before it, when the Chinese research ship entered the Indian Ocean, India pressured Sri Lanka not to allow the Chinese research ship to dock and replenish, on the grounds that the Chinese research ship was engaged in military activities and threatened India's national security, and both Japan and India were frequently hyping up the "China threat".
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Japan does not ask a person who cannot come up with money to pay off all its debts within a set time according to the actual situation in Sri Lanka, in fact, it wants to push Sri Lanka to a dead end through debts and make Sri Lanka give up cooperation with China.
Before the visit to China, Sri Lanka had already begun to slap India in the face, not only arresting a large number of Indian fishermen, but also with a German ship docking at Sri Lankan ports, which meant that Sri Lanka was forced by India to claim that "no foreign ships are allowed to call at the port for one year" The ban is about to be lifted, and Sri Lanka clearly understands that compromise will only lead to intensified squeezing.
As for Japan, it is also ruining its reputation, itself after Japan's economic ranking in the world fell to the fourth, the international discourse power plummeted, the IMF predicted that Japan will not even be able to beat India in the future, and after not having hope for Japan, the IMF immediately looked at China, hoping that China would increase its investment in the IMF, so that the IMF would have the opportunity to provide financing opportunities for more poor countries, but now Japan is now in order to contain China, but also take small countries, which will not only affect China's confidence in investing in the IMF, but Japan itself will be further despised by the international community。
India and Japan are two defeated men, and sooner or later they will lose again.