’Concerned over Chinese loans to Pakistan...’: US holding talks with India

The United States is deeply concerned that Chinese loans to countries in India's immediate neighborhood may be used for coercive leverage, said US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu on Friday, while addressing a press briefing previewing Antony Blinken's upcoming travel to India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.

This came after Pakistan received a deposit of $700 million from the China Development Bank, which will provide a much-needed boost to the crisis-hit country's foreign exchange reserves.

Replying to a question on Chinese loans to Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Lu said, “Concerning Chinese loans to countries in India's immediate neighborhood, we are deeply concerned that loans may be used for coercive leverage.”

"And we are talking to India, talking to countries of the region about how we help countries to make their own decisions and not decisions that might be compelled by any outside partner, including China," he added as quoted by ANI. 

Antony Blinken will visit Delhi on March 1 to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting which will focus on strengthening multilateralism and deepening cooperation on food and energy security, sustainable development, counter-narcotics, global health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, gender equality, and women's empowerment. 

Lu further assured US support to India to make its G20 presidency a success. "There is no shortage of common challenges, and we want to deepen our partnership with other G20 countries to address these challenges."

He said that Blinken will also be meeting his counterpart Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar with whom he will talk about their strategic partnership but really focus on how we're working together in the Asian Quad, in the G20, what we're doing on defense cooperation, and the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies that is being run out of the White House and the prime minister's office, ANI reported. 

"On March 3rd, the Secretary will also participate in a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Asian Quad, which is the United States, India, Japan, and Australia," Lu stated. 

(With ANI inputs)