Hailing the role of New Delhi in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring, Japanese Ambassador to India Hiroshi Suzuki said that India’s issuance of financing assurances to the island nation at the time of its economic crisis was instrumental in accelerating the process of its debt restructuring.
Ambassador Suzuki also said that Japan appreciates India’s engagement and forward-looking approach on the issue.
He made these remarks at the India-Sri Lanka-Japan Trilateral Cooperation Event co-hosted by NatStrat, a not-for-profit centre for research on strategic and security issues, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), the Pathfinder Foundation, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Addressing the event, the Japanese envoy also highlighted the role of India, Japan, and Sri Lanka in the Indo-Pacific region.
“When Prime Minister Kishida visited Delhi and gave an address on the new plan of the free and open Indo-Pacific, he highlighted South Asia as one of the major pillars and one of the priority regions in his new plan. And Japan attaches primary importance to its relations with Sri Lanka and India as indispensable partners in order to realise the vision,” said Ambassador Suzuki.
Commenting on Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process, the Japanese envoy spoke about how Development Finance has been a major challenge for the Indo-Pacific region and how Japan attaches importance to transparent and fair developmental assistance.
“In the Indo-Pacific region, there is a huge demand for development finance. Japan has been taking the position that it attaches the highest priority to transparent and fair developmental assistance and development finance, which abide 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.”
