China expressed support for Sri Lanka ahead of a meeting Friday of government lenders to poor economies but did not say if it might help to cut multibillion-dollar debts that have plunged the Indian Ocean island nation into financial and political turmoil.
Beijing is one of Sri Lanka's biggest creditors after it borrowed under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative to expand trade by building ports and other facilities across Asia and Africa. China has offered a two-year suspension of repayments but balked at cutting the amount borrowed. That is an obstacle to to obtaining an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund, which wants other creditors to agree to debt reductions.
