The Belt and Road Initiative: Debt Trap and its Implication on International Security

Abstract

One concern that has been raised against China’s infrastructure financing foreign policy – the Belt and Road Initiative – which entails lending to sovereign, mostly developing countries is debt trap. This paper draws inspiration from China’s policy response towards a defaulter country – Sri Lanka – to look at the implication of this concern from an international security perspective with two cases: Djibouti and Pakistan. It argues that, an event of default and China’s policy response of debt-for-equity swap would lead to a direct involvement on others domestic politics which would prompt various levels of civil, regional and international conflicts.