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PARAMARIBO, Suriname/GEORGETOWN, Guyana:
China’s embassies to Suriname and Guyana on Friday accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “spreading rumors” and “smearing” Beijing, after Washington’s prime diplomat criticized Chinese firms throughout a four-stop South America tour.
In a joint look with newly elected Surinamese President Chan Santokhi on Thursday, Pompeo mentioned Chinese firms typically don’t compete on a “fair and equitable basis.”
“We’ve watched the Chinese Communist Party invest in countries, and it all seems great at the front end and then it all comes falling down when the political costs connected to that becomes clear,” Pompeo mentioned.
His feedback got here after a string of oil discoveries off the coast of Suriname, whose commerce ties with China grew beneath the small South American nation’s former President Desi Bouterse, a navy strongman who oversaw an financial collapse and misplaced a re-election bid to Santokhi earlier this 12 months.
China lent and invested closely in resource-rich Latin America in the course of the decade-long commodities growth that largely resulted in 2014. The Trump administration has sought to focus on the heavy money owed and financial deterioration these ties have left for shut Chinese commerce companions like Venezuela and Ecuador.
The Chinese embassy to Paramaribo mentioned in a press release that “any attempt to sow discord between China and Suriname is doomed to fail.”
“We advise Mr. Pompeo to respect facts and truth, abandon arrogance and prejudice, stop smearing and spreading rumors about China,” it added.
China’s embassy to neighboring Guyana issued an identical assertion afterward Friday after Pompeo visited Georgetown, arguing Beijing “attaches no political strings in bilateral pragmatic cooperations.”
Santokhi had instructed reporters on Thursday that Suriname’s relationship with China was not a subject of dialog in his assembly with Pompeo.
“It is not a question of making choices,” he mentioned.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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