Sri Lanka’s major creditors, including India, Japan, and France, are nearing a debt deal by mid-October, according to the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shinbun. However, there are serious questions as to whether China (one of Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditors) will be part of the deal.
This puts much pressure on Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s upcoming visit to Beijing to attend ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Wickremesinghe ...
Day: January 24, 2023
Why Africa Shouldn’t Count on Janet Yellen for Debt Help
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Africa touting the Biden administration’s reenergized Africa policy. Her visit comes as several African countries are struggling with debt distress and Zambia and Ghana have officially defaulted. Debt’s prominence as a talking point is somewhat awkward, considering ...
China’s Overseas Development Finance Totaled $10.5 Billion in 2020-21, Lowest in Recent Years
By Rebecca Ray After providing a staggering amount of finance for overseas development projects in the wake of the global financial crisis, Chinese overseas development finance has been on a general downward trend for several years. New data shows the pandemic ...
U.S. Treasury Secretary Blames China for Delays in Zambia Debt Restructuring
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen accused China of blocking progress for Zambia's drawn-out debt restructuring process that is now entering its second year. “I know the Chinese have been a barrier to concluding the negotiations,” she said in Lusaka on Monday, the ...
Lavrov Visit and Upcoming Joint Naval Exercises With China Spark Anger in South Africa
The South African government is coming under intense criticism for welcoming Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and for next month's joint naval exercises with both Russia and China. SA Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor dismissed the criticism on Monday at a press conference ...
Uganda to Become Africa’s Newest Oil Exporting Country With Inauguration of New Chinese-operated Drilling in Lake Albert
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's long-held ambition to export oil via the controversial East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) will move closer to reality on Tuesday when he commissions the country's first new drilling site in Lake Albert. The President will inaugurate ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Glimmers of Debt Deal for Sri Lanka Raises China Pressure
Buhari Commissions Port of Lekki, One of China’s Most Consequential Infrastructure Projects in Africa
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari officially opened West Africa's largest port facility on Tuesday when he commissioned the new Lekki Deep Sea Port in Lagos State. The opening coincided with the docking of the first cargo vessel, the French-flagged CMA CGM Mozart, to ...
No Blackface in This Year’s Spring Gala TV Show, Actual Africans Performed Instead
The producers of this year's Spring Gala television variety show in China appear to have learned from recent scandals around Chinese actors in blackface appearing in the hugely popular annual Lunar New Year program. Instead, Tanzanian singer Coronia Kila performed on ...
China’s Overseas Development Finance Totaled $10.5 Billion in 2020-21, Lowest in Recent Years
By Rebecca Ray After providing a staggering amount of finance for overseas development projects in the wake of the global financial crisis, Chinese overseas development finance has been on a general downward trend for several years. New data shows the pandemic ...