Academic says Iraq could pay its debts by involving China in post-war reconstruction
19.12.2003 07:05:00 GMT
Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - The problem of debts owed by Iraq to foreign countries will become even more complicated if the United States insists on excluding countries believed to have opposed the Iraqi war from the reconstruction program, an influential Chinese foreign relations expert in Beijing has said.
"Iraq has several billion dollars of debts with China, which should be paid back," said Qu Xing, vice president of the China Foreign Affairs College (FAC) in an interview with the domestic business newspaper, Zhonghua Gongshang Shibao. The FAC is the alma mater of a majority of China's diplomats.
"Should there be any problem with direct repayment of the debt, it could be arranged that the debt be cancelled out by profits earned by China during Iraq's reconstruction," suggested Qu.
China, along with France, Germany, Russia and Canada, were not included in the list of countries eligible to compete for Iraqi reconstruction contracts posted by the U.S. Defense Ministry at the beginning of December. Strong protests were voiced by France, Germany, Russia and Canada, followed by immediate negotiations between the countries and the United States on the possible revision of the list.
So far, the official reaction from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been no more than the expression of concern about the issue.
An anonymous official with China's Ministry of Commerce, who once took part in helping Chinese companies return to Iraq, told Interfax that it should not be expected that the Chinese government's position will be made explicit now, as China has virtually no ongoing projects in Iraq, and none are expected to commence soon.
"We have always wanted to enter [the Iraqi market]," said another official with the Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Commerce during an interview with Interfax. "We are still doing preliminary work because the situation in Iraq is still quite chaotic. But we have kept contact and have been following the information there," added the official.
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