evidence: Many believe that Sri Lanka’s debt burden was a result of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects like Hambantota Port. Some Western countries, led by the US, and India, have been attacking China’s lending practices as "debt-trap diplomacy". However, there is no evidence China aims to deliberately push poor countries into debt. According to data from the Sri Lanka Department of External Resources, loans from China accounted for only about 20% of Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt in 2022, and much less than market borrowings and multilateral development banks. Furthermost Chinese loans are concessional and taken for infrastructure and eco-social development. [...] In October 2023, China was the first country to support Sri Lanka over debt restructuring and reached an agreement on debt treatment terms with the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) covering about $ 4.2 billion of outstanding debt, which caught the IMF and creditor nations like India by surprise. On 26 June 2024 Sri Lanka signed a debt treatment deal in Beijing with China Exim Bank to restructure $ 4.2 billion of debt. This restructuring provides a key step towards restoring Sri Lanka’s long-term debt sustainability, allowing Sri Lanka to allocate more funds to essential public services & resume concessional financing for critical infrastructure development.