By Indika Sakalasooriya in Daily Mirror, Oct 13, 2023China has taken the front seat in Sri Lanka’s external debt restructuring process making a calculated move akin to a chessboard strategy, catching everyone off-guard, by entering a preliminary debt deal with the Sri Lanka authorities. Despite being Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender, China remained in shadows as Sri Lanka initiated negotiations with its creditors to restructure its debt, following a default on its foreign loans in…
Posts tagged as “China”
By Rathindra Kuruwita in The Island, Oct 6, 2023Sri Lanka has made good progress in debt restructuring discussions with China, and negotiations with all parties will be concluded around the same time, Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe says. Addressing the media in Colombo on Thursday, Dr. Weerasinghe, in answer to a question posed by a journalist, denied reports that progress in debt restructuring discussions with China was lagging compared to that in…
by Prithvi Man Shrestha in The Kathmandu Post, Oct 4, 2023China has opened the door for the import of over a dozen medicinal herbs from Nepal for producing medicine. When Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal visited China in late September, the two countries signed the Protocol of Phytosanitary Requirements for the export of plant-derived medicinal materials for Chinese medicine from Nepal to China. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and the General Administration of…
report in Khaama Press online, Oct 3, 2023On Tuesday, Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi departed from Kabul to attend the third Trans-Himalaya Forum for International Cooperation in China. The forum is being held in Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province, China. This visit comes as part of diplomatic efforts to strengthen ties and promote economic cooperation, regional connectivity, and ecological changes among the Himalayan region nations. Hafiz Zia Ahmad, the deputy spokesman for the Foreign Ministry,…
Report in The Kathmandu Post, Oct 1, 2023Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal returned home on Saturday after his two-week-long visit to China and New York. Talking to the media upon arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Dahal made no mention of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship project, that was tipped to be taken forward as a Nepal-China after negotiations in Beijing. Both the 40-point press note issued in Kathmandu and…
report in The Island, Sept 30, 2023China will continue to firmly support Sri Lanka in pursuing a development path that suits its own national conditions, getting rid of the “poverty trap” and the “trap of non-development”, and safeguarding its independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national dignity, Ambassador Qi Zhenhong said at the 74th National Day Reception of the People’s Republic of China on Thursday. Given below are excerpts of the Chinese Ambassador’s speech: “Right now,…
report in Nepalnews.comKailash Mansarovar (China), Sept 27: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is currently on an official visit to China since September 23, said that accessible arrangements will be made to visit popular Hindu shrines Mt Kailash and Mansarovar Lake in China via the Humla district of Nepal. PM Dahal visited Mt Kailash and Manasarovar Lake on Thursday. Talking briefly to the RSS after his visit to the sites, the Prime Minister said that…
by Khaleeq Kiani in Dawn, Sept 29th, 2023ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is seeking around $11bn in bilateral support from China and Saudi Arabia as the caretakers push for expanding the tax net effectively to retail, agricultural and real estate sectors while continuing a crackdown on illegal currency movements to fill external and domestic resource gaps so that the IMF programme remains on track to ensure economic stability until an elected government takes power. This was part of…
By Bibi Amina Hakimi in TOLOnews, Sept 28, 2023The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan as well as representatives of the UK, China, Pakistan, and Iran called for the continuation of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Speaking at the UN Security Council Meeting, the head of UNAMA, Roza Otunbayeva, said that the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan had received US $872 million, approximately only 28 per cent of the $3.2 billion requested. “Many programmes have already closed…
Report in The Nation, Sept 28, 2023ISLAMABAD – Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said that Pakistan was focusing on its own interests without choosing sides in the great power competition, and that the West was “over-obsessed” with efforts to contain China. The prime minister, in an interview with Washington Post during his visit to New York to attend the 78th United Nations General Assembly session published on Wednesday, said Pakistan intended to stay “neutral”…
by Shahbaz Rana in The Express Tribune, Sept 27, 2023ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to further beef up security to safeguard the commercial interests of China after both the sides acknowledged a challenging security situation being faced by the strategic ally’s citizens, projects and institutions in the country. Islamabad and Beijing have agreed to further deepen their cooperation in the security horizon as well as to jointly defeat any conspiracies sabotaging the friendship and amicable cooperation…