New Delhi: Japanese Ambassador to India Hiroshi Suzuki on Thursday said that India’s issuance of financing assurances to Sri Lanka at the time of its economic crisis was instrumental in accelerating the process of Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring and that it appreciates India’s engagement and forward-looking approach to the issue.
While speaking at the Indai-Sri Lanka-Japan Trilateral Cooperation event co-hosted by NatStrat, VIF, Pathfinder, and CII the ambassador also highlighted the role of India, Japan, and Sri Lanka in the Indo–Pacific region.
The Japanese ambassador also called for equal treatment for all creditor countries when it comes to issues related to Sri Lanka's debt restructuring. "If one country is favoured over another, then the entire debt restructuring will fall apart. Sri Lankan President has made it clear that Sri Lankan govt will never treat any country more favourable than others and Japan appreciates commitment," the Japanese envoy said.
He further highlighted South Asia as one of the major pillars in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision adding, "Japan attaches primary importance to ties between India and Sri Lanka who are indispensable partners". However, speaking on the Sri Lankan debt restructuring, the envoy stressed how "Development Finance has been a major challenge for the Indo-Pacific region and how his country attaches importance to transparent and fair developmental assistance."
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"In the Indo–Pacific region, there is a huge demand for development finance. Japan has been taking the position which attaches the highest priority to transparent and fair developmental assistance, and development finance, which abides by international rules and standards. More concretely, Japan has been pushing forward what is called quality infrastructure principles, which were indeed agreed upon by all the leaders of the G20 Presidents, and Prime Ministers when they gathered for the Osaka G20 Summit back in 2019,” Suzuki added.
“This high-quality infrastructure principle attaches importance to four major aspects. One, transparency, second, openness, third, economic viability and fourth, but not least, debt sustainability. So, these are the four key items that Japan feels are important in providing both infrastructure and viable development assistance,” he added. Further, Milinda Moragoda, the Sri Lanka High Commissioner also hailed the trilateral cooperation between the two countries and said that given the amount of investment required, it hence becomes an important aspect.
“This I would see as the next stage of our President’s Ranil Wickremesinghe visit to India. As you know the joint economic vision statement that was given between Prime Minister Modi and Wickremesinghe outlined three key areas. One was ‘connectivity’, the second was ‘economic integration’ and the third was an investment. In that context, given the amount of investments that are required, trilateral cooperation becomes also an important aspect of it. So in that context, Japan, India, and Sri Lanka working together. Japan and Sri Lanka have had a long association and so is India and Sri Lanka,” added the High Commissioner.
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