KATHMANDU, Jan 11: The Embassy of Japan in Kathmandu has made some clarifications over a news report which quoted Japanese foreign ministry Spokesperson Natsuka Sakata and was published in Thursday’s edition of Republica. 

In a clarification note sent to Republica on Thursday, the embassy said that Spokesperson Sakata had said that any infrastructure project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) needs to be economically viable and, therefore, needs to be of high quality. “Her comment was that the low-quality infrastructure which will worn out soon should be no point, infrastructure itself must be long-standing,” the note said.

Republica in its news report titled “Financial support for BRI projects should be concessional: Japan” had quoted Sakata as saying that any loan extended under BRI frameworks needs to be economically viable and that Japan had been sharing the responses it received from various countries with the Chinese side.   

The embassy also clarified that Sakata had remarked during an interaction with editors and senior journalists of mainstream media that “if it is appreciable, with those standards aforementioned, Japan and China can collaborate.” 

During the interaction, Sakata had said that the financial support to any project under BRI should be concessional and that the whole process must be transparent. She had also said that Japan won’t join China-led BRI. 

Pointing out a factual error, the note also said that Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono did not participate in Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi as mentioned in the news report. 

 
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