Our aid doesn't create debt trap: India's dig at China at UN

IN an apparent dig at China, India on Tuesday (9) told the United Nations Security Council that it has always tried to foster global solidarity across the world with its development partnership efforts respecting national priorities and ensured that its assistance did not create “indebtedness”.

India’s minister of state for external affairs Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh said while addressing the council’s open debate on ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Exclusion, Inequality and Conflict’ that whether it is with the neighbours under the ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy or with African partners or with other developing countries, “India has remained and will continue to be a source of strong support to help them build back better and stronger”. The debate was held under the current presidency of Mexico.

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“India has always strived to foster global solidarity across the world with our development partnership efforts fully respecting national priorities and ensuring that our assistance remains demand-driven, contributes to employment generation and capacity building and does not create indebtedness. This is particularly true in countries in the post-conflict phase,” Singh said.

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There have been global concerns over debt traps and regional hegemony by China using its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. China doles out huge funds for infrastructure projects in countries from Asia to Africa and Europe. The former Donald Trump administration in the US had been extremely critical of the BRI and said Beijing’s “predatory financing” is leaving smaller nations under huge debt which is endangering their sovereignty.

Singh also said that international efforts in the maintenance of peace and security need to be inclusive. The process of implementing a peace pact must run along with assistance – humanitarian and emergency, resumption of economic activity and the creation of political and administrative institutions that improve governance and include all stakeholders, particularly women and people from disadvantaged sections.

“We also need to avoid politicising humanitarian and developmental assistance in conflict situations. The humanitarian action must be primarily guided by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence,” he said.

The Indian representative also said that the international community needs to “walk the talk” by ensuring a predictable and enhanced flow of resources to countries in the post-conflict phase.