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Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi indicated Saturday that Tokyo will help African countries escape China’s “debt trap.”
During online talks with ministers from African nations, Hayashi expressed readiness to support African countries that wish to get out of the debt trap, saying, “We will facilitate the environment in which (developing nations) do not have to depend on such financing,” without mentioning China.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi addresses an online meeting with African counterparts of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development on March 26, 2022, at his ministry in Tokyo. (Kyodo)
“We should not tolerate destabilization of developing countries,” he also said.
The two-day talks until Sunday are aimed to lay the groundwork for the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a Japan-led initiative to assist African development, slated for August.
The annual white paper on development cooperation issued by Japan’s Foreign Ministry earlier this month says the international community has been condemning “debt trap” financing, which saddles recipient countries with loans they cannot repay, in a veiled reference to China’s huge infrastructure projects in developing nations.
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