In a regular press conference held on April 13, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Wenbin, assured that China would continue to support Chinese financial institutions in actively working out the debt treatment for Sri Lanka.
Wenbin responded to a question regarding a new platform to coordinate restructuring of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt, which is expected to be announced by Japan, France, and India. He said, “We will work with relevant countries and international financial institutions to jointly play a positive role in helping Sri Lanka navigate the situation, ease its debt burden, and achieve sustainable development. At the same time, we call on commercial and multilateral creditors to take part in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring based on fair burden-sharing.”
On April 12, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki announced that Japan, France, and India would launch a new platform for creditors to coordinate restructuring of Sri Lanka’s debt. He also expressed the hope that China would join the effort.