Latest news with #BRI
The Print
3 hours ago
- Politics
- The Print
Following are the top foreign stories at 2100 hours
FGN73 INDOPAK-LDALL DELEGATIONS **** India will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail and will strike decisively at terrorist hideouts: All-party delegations Singapore/Paris/Kinshasa: All-party parliamentary delegations on Tuesday made it clear that India will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail and will strike precisely and decisively at the terrorist hideouts developing under the cover of nuclear blackmail. **** FGN68 CHINA-4THLD EXPLOSION **** 5 killed, 19 injured, six missing in explosion at chemical plant in China Beijing: Five people were killed and six others reported missing after an explosion rocked one of the largest chemical plants in China on Tuesday, generating a huge fireball and sending plumes of smoke hundreds of feet into the air. **** FGN43 FRANCE-DELEGATION-PRASAD **** Distinction between state of Pakistan & terrorism has withered away: Ravi Shankar Prasad Paris: The distinction between the state of Pakistan and terrorism has now withered away, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday, underlining that terrorism as an instrument of state policy is a part of the military state in the neighbouring country. **** FGN41 MALDIVES-INDIA-DIPLOMAT **** India, Maldives share longstanding relationship built on mutual trust and confidence: Indian envoy Male: India and the Maldives share a longstanding relationship built on mutual trust and confidence, Indian High Commissioner G Balasubramanian has said, expressing hope that their ties will continue to strengthen. **** FGN44 BANGLA-PROTEST **** Bangladesh deploys paramilitary forces at secretariat as employees' protest enters 4th consecutive day Dhaka/New Delhi: Bangladesh's interim government led by Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday deployed paramilitary forces at the secretariat as protests by government employees against a new service law, which allows easier dismissal of officials for misconduct, entered the fourth consecutive day at the central administrative hub. **** FGN36 CHINA-BRI-DEBT **** China to collect record USD 22 bn BRI debt repayments from developing nations this year Beijing: China will turn from a capital provider to a debt collector of 75 developing countries, including the world's poorest and most vulnerable, this year as they are due to pay back a record USD 22 billion loans owed to Beijing, according to data released by an Australian think tank. **** FGN18 FRANCE-DELEGATION-LD DIASPORA **** Ravi Shankar Prasad exhorts Indian community in France to highlight India's fight against terror Paris: BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad exhorted members of the Indian community in France to make every effort to showcase Brand India as a beacon of peace that is fighting against the global curse of terrorism. **** FGN9 BAHRAIN-INDIA-DELEGATION **** Indian delegation engages in diplomatic outreach across Muslim world Manama (Bahrain): Workers at Kohinoor and Evershine, two souvenir shops right at the entrance of Bab Al Bahrain, were taken by surprise when Indian parliamentarians made a surprise appearance at this historical market area of Manama Souq. **** FGN54 PAK-IMRAN **** Imran Khan says he would prefer spending entire life in jail rather than bowing before tyranny Lahore: Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said he would prefer spending his entire life in prison rather than bowing before tyranny and oppression, in an apparent reference to the military establishment. **** FGN32 UK-LIVERPOOL-TOLL **** 4 children among 50 injured after car ploughs into crowd during Liverpool's Premier League football victory parade London: At least 50 people, including four children, have been injured after a car ploughed into a crowd during Liverpool's Premier League football victory parade. **** FGN19 CONGO-INDIA-DELEGATION **** Congo assures to 'echo' India's message against terrorism at all international fora Kinshasa: Congo has assured that it will 'echo' India's message against terrorism at all international fora where the Central African nation is a member, during the visit of an all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde here to highlight New Delhi's zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism and expose Pakistan's alleged links to cross-border terror activities. **** FGN6 NEPAL-EVEREST-RECORD **** Nepalese Sherpa guide scales Mount Everest for 31st time breaking own record Kathmandu: Famed Nepalese Sherpa guide Kami Rita on Tuesday scaled Mount Everest for the 31st time, breaking his own record for the most successful ascents of the world's highest mountain. **** FGN29 NEPAL-MINISTER-HIMALAYAS **** Nepal committed to protecting Himalayas: senior minister Kathmandu: Nepal is committed to protecting the Himalayas whose future is threatened by climate change and global warming, a senior minister said on Tuesday. **** FGN34 PAK-POLIO-LD ATTACK **** Gunmen kill policeman providing security to polio vaccination team in Pak's Balochistan Islamabad: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a police personnel guarding a polio vaccination team in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Tuesday before escaping from the scene, officials said. **** PTI GRS GRS GRS This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Epoch Times
4 hours ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
Beijing Turns Its Eye Toward Latin America
Commentary Despite the pause in President Donald Trump's tariff pressure on China, Beijing knows how vulnerable its economy is to a trade war with the United States. In an effort to find alternatives to the American relationship, China has launched a charm offensive the world over, most pointedly in Washington's backyard, in Latin America. With Latin American trade in mind, Beijing has convened meetings of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum. Beijing launched the group in 2015. At these most recent meetings, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reminded delegates from the 30 countries gathered in Beijing earlier in May how much China–CELAC trade has grown in the years since the forum was inaugurated, to the equivalent of $515 billion in 2024, still smaller than Xi also touted China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road) and pledged a 66 billion yuan (about $9.2 billion) credit line for fresh infrastructure investment. It is an attractive amount to less-than-fully developed societies in Latin America and the Caribbean. But as a sign of China's other severe economic problems, Xi's recent offer was less than half China pledged in 2015. Credit lines and the glitter of the BRI were not all Xi offered at the forum. He promised both Brazil and Colombia that China would buy more of their exports and that, in addition to his pledge, he would encourage both private and state-owned Chinese firms to invest more in the two countries. Especially Brazil welcomed these promises, since that country and its president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have positioned themselves to deliver agricultural products to China should a trade war with the United States force China to cut back on heretofore significant American agricultural imports. As part of Beijing's courtship of Latin American trade ties, Xi also announced that Beijing will allow for one year visa-free entry into China for the nationals of five Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay—not coincidentally, all major agricultural exporters. Related Stories 5/17/2025 2/28/2025 No doubt Xi was especially pleased to announce that Although more than 20 Latin American countries are among the 150 nations participating in China's BRI, the new presence of Colombia is especially important to Beijing, because Panama recently announced its decision to leave the program when its membership expires in about two years. Beijing blames this decision on pressure from Washington, but it is otherwise entirely consistent with the behavior of other nations that have discovered how a BRI affiliation comes with terms and conditions that can be burdensome. The meetings could have been a diplomatic win for Beijing. Though trade issues remain ambiguous and Latin America, even with the Caribbean, cannot make up for lost trade with the United States, China nonetheless appears to have made some progress moving away from its dependence on the United States, should it become necessary. So far, the Trump administration has said nothing about China's actions or those of the nations involved with the China–CELAC Forum. In a purely economic light, things look less like a triumph. The arrangements proposed by Xi will impose costs on a weakened Chinese economy that can ill afford them, and even in the best possible light from Beijing's point of view, the conclusions of the forum hardly bind Latin America to China. Indeed, Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Epoch Times
6 hours ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
World's 75 Poorest Countries Owe China $22 Billion This Year: Think Tank
The world's 75 poorest countries are set to make debt repayments of $22 billion to China this year, according to a 'Debt service flows to China from developing countries will total $35 billion in 2025 and are set to remain elevated for the rest of this decade,' the Sydney-based Lowy Institute, which receives funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in the report. 'The bulk of this debt service, some $22 billion, is owed by 75 of the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries.' The report comes as Peruvian Economy Minister Raul Perez Reyes met with China's ambassador to Lima, Song Yang, to discuss a new regional rail corridor that would terminate in the new port of Peru's Ministry of Economy and Finance said in a The Peruvian government said Fei Dongbin, head of the China National Railway Administration, and several other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) representatives were also present at the meeting. The proposed railway would connect Brazil to Chancay, on Peru's Pacific coast, creating a trade route that would avoid Chinese ships having to travel through the Panama Canal, or around the southern tip of South America. Related Stories 5/25/2025 5/23/2025 China has given huge loans for infrastructure projects in many parts of the world, under Chinese leader Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The program has underwritten the building of huge ports such as The Lowy Institute said, 'Now, and for the rest of this decade, China will be more debt collector than banker to the developing world.' The report said that Beijing has transitioned from capital provider to net financial drainer on developing country budgets as debt servicing costs on BRI projects from the 2010s now far outstrip new loan disbursements. In 54 of 120 developing countries from which there were available data, debt service payments to China exceeded the combined payments owed to the The Paris Club is owed a total of $616 billion by 102 countries. The report said China was prioritizing funding for neighbors such as Pakistan, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan, and also countries that provided important raw materials, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Brazil, and Argentina. 'Beijing faces a dilemma: pushing too hard for repayment could damage bilateral ties and undermine its diplomatic goals. At the same time, China's lending arms, particularly its quasi-commercial institutions, face mounting pressure to recover outstanding debts,' the author of the report, research fellow Riley Duke, said. 'How China's shift to chief debt collector will impact its reputation as a development partner and its broader messaging around South-South cooperation remains to be seen.' He said highly indebted African states were often wary of rocking the boat and risking the loss of access to Chinese financing and trade. 'An increasingly transactional United States and distracted Europe have also likely fed a narrowed sense of their potential future economic pathways,' Duke added. The report pointed out that BRI loans often seemed to come with strings attached, especially when it came to adhering to the CCP's 'One China' policy. Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, and the Solomon Islands all received big loans within 18 months of dropping diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. With China increasingly reining in BRI loans, Peru might find it harder to secure funding for the CFBC, which Lima described as a 'megaproject that would redefine South American regional integration.' Reyes said, 'We are willing to co-finance our part of the tranche.' The CFBC would link Lima with the city of Pucallpa in the Peruvian interior, and then across the border to Cruzeiro do Sul in Brazil, and via Vilhena, to the major metropolises of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
United News of India
7 hours ago
- Business
- United News of India
75 poorest nations facing China's debt gauntlet, have to pay 25 bn Dollars in 2025
New Delhi, May 27 (UNI) Pakistan is among the 75 poorest countries in China's debt trap under President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and have to repay a record 22 billion Dollars in 2025, a study has said. ''The most vulnerable nations on earth are facing a tidal wave of debt repayments as a Chinese lending boom starts to be called in,'' report has warned. Vulnerable countries to pay record 22 bn Dollars this year, mostly relating to loans issued under Xi Jinping's belt and road initiative. The study, published on Tuesday by Australian foreign policy think tank the Lowy Institute and reported by The Guardian said that in 2025 the poorest 75 countries were on the hook for record high debt repayments 22 bn US Dollars to China. The 75 nations' debt formed the bulk of the total 35 bn Dollars calculated by Lowy for 2025. 'China spent 240 bn Dollars on belt and road bailouts from 2008 to 2021, study finds…Now, and for the rest of this decade, China will be more debt collector than banker to the developing world,' the report said. The pressure to repay was putting strain on local funding for health and education as well as climate change mitigation. However, 'China's lending has collapsed exactly when it is needed most, instead creating large net financial outflows when countries are already under intense economic pressure,' it said. The loans were largely issued under President Xi Jinping's signature BRI. The lending spree turned China into the largest supplier of bilateral loans, peaking with a total of more than 50bn Dollars in 2016 – more than all western creditors combined. The BRI focused primarily in developing nations, where governments struggled to access private or other state-backed investment. But the practice has raised concerns about Chinese influence and control and drawn accusations that Beijing was seeking to entrap recipient nations with unserviceable debt. Last month another analysis by the Lowy Institute found that Laos was now trapped in a severe debt crisis, in part because of over-investment in the domestic energy sector, mostly financed by China. China's government denies accusations it deliberately creates debt traps, and recipient nations have also pushed back, saying China was a more reliable partner and offered crucial loans when others refused. But the Lowy report said the record high debt now due to China could be used for 'political leverage', noting that it comes amid huge cuts to foreign aid by the Trump administration. The report also highlighted new large-scale loans given to Honduras, Nicaragua, Solomon Islands, Burkina Faso and the Dominican Republic, all within 18 months of those countries switching diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing. China also continues to finance some strategic partners, including Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Laos and Mongolia, as well as countries that produce critical minerals and metals, such as Argentina, Brazil and Indonesia. But the situation also put China in a bind, pulled between diplomatic pressure to restructure unsustainable debt in vulnerable nations and domestic pressure to recall loans amid China's own economic downturn. China publishes little data on its BRI scheme, and the Lowy Institute said its estimates – based on World Bank data – likely underestimated the full scale of China's lending. In 2021 Aid Data estimated China was owed a 'hidden debt' of about 385 bn Dollars. UNI RB GNK 1810
The Hindu
8 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
China to collect record $22 billion BRI debt repayments from developing nations this year
China will turn from a capital provider to a debt collector of 75 developing countries, including the world's poorest and most vulnerable, this year as they are due to pay back a record $22 billion loans owed to Beijing, according to data released by an Australian think tank. China has become the leading debt collector of developing countries, shifting from a net capital provider, "as bills coming due from its Belt and Road lending surge in the 2010s now far outstrip new loan disbursements", the latest research report of the Australian think tank, the Lowy Institute, said. In 2025, about 75 of the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries will make 'record high debt repayments' totalling $22 billion to China as a result of peaks in new loan commitments made from 2012 to 2018, the report said. China faces a dilemma and growing diplomatic pressure to restructure unsustainable debt besides mounting domestic pressure, particularly from its quasi-commercial institutions, to recover outstanding debts, according to the report prepared by Riley Duke. Mr. Duke said that the research was being published now because China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) lending spree peaked in the mid-2010s, and those grace periods began expiring in the early 2020s— a likely 'crunch period' for developing-country repayments to China. How China's shift to chief debt collector will impact its reputation as a development partner remains to be seen, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted Mr. Duke as saying. On Tuesday (May 27, 2025), the Chinese Foreign Ministry sought to play down the report, saying that a handful of countries are spreading rumours against Chinese loan assistance to developing countries. China's investment and financing cooperation with the developing countries is in line with the international common practices, the market principles and the principle of debt sustainability, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here while commenting on the report. A handful of countries are spreading the rumours, citing China threat, but they don't talk about the fact that multilateral institutions are the major creditors of developing countries and the source of the debt repayment, she said. Under its influential BRI initiative, the signature initiative of President Xi Jinping, China has doled out billions of dollars of loans to dozens of infrastructure projects in developing countries to further its global influence. However, the investments attracted criticism of being debt traps after China acquired Sri Lanka's Hambantota port for a 99-year lease as a debt swap. Several recipient countries struggled to pay back the loans for the projects, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant economic crisis and poor viability of the undertakings. In 54 of 120 developing countries with available data, debt-service payments to China now exceed the combined repayments owed to the Paris Club – a bloc that includes all major Western bilateral lenders, the report said. The research showed that China remains the largest bilateral lender in seven of its nine land neighbours: Laos, Pakistan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 'A majority have received new Chinese loan commitments since 2019 and together account for a quarter of all disbursements since China's lending downturn began in 2018,' Mr. Duke added. Last year, China became the largest creditor of Pakistan, Beijing's all-weather ally, with almost $29 billion in loans, according to a World Bank report. China had the single largest share of debt to Pakistan with 22% share (about $28.786 billion), followed by the World Bank's 18% share ($23.55 billion) and the Asian Development Bank's 15% share ($19.63 billion), it said. This year, Pakistan is expected to have significant debt rollover and repayment needs, with estimates ranging from $22 billion to over $30 billion in external debt maturing. In March, Beijing, which is pursuing a $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) rolled over a USD two billion loan for Pakistan, one of several such rollovers in the last few years. For its part, China which itself is facing an economic slowdown at home has trimmed its future BRI investments from mega projects to 'small but beautiful' undertakings. The BRI, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond.
