No chance of Chinese debt trap: FM

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday reiterated that there is no scope for Bangladesh to get into Chinese "debt trap" noting that the economists who say such things might have an intention to appease the United States.

He said Bangladesh has borrowed the highest amount from Japan but nobody talks about it, their only headache is about Chinese loan.

"We remain very careful. There's no scope that we'll fall into debt trap. We cut our coat according to our clothes," he told reporters while responding to a question at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The foreign minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina takes decisions through proper scrutiny and analysing every aspect and in no way Bangladesh should be compared with the Sri Lankan case.

"'We don't know what we hear from you sometimes. You write Bangladesh is falling into the Chinese debt trap. Later, I see that you write completely illusory words," he said.

While talking about negative comments on Chinese loans by the economist, Momen said maybe they want to please the United States."

Bangladesh has so far managed foreign debt very well but there is a lot of discussion in the public domain following the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

In February, Foreign Minister Momen said China has come forward with the "basket of money" along with "aggressive and affordable" proposals amid Bangladesh's growing infrastructure need when help from many countries has been "declining".  

However, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar who was present at the same event in Germany laid emphasis on making an "informed decision" and cited the problems that they have seen in some countries in the region.