China says Maldives is not 'mired in a Chinese debt trap'

The Maldives are not "mired in a Chinese debt trap", the Chinese government's top diplomat told the visiting Maldivian foreign minister, amid fears in the Indian Ocean country of debts as high as $3 billion owing to Beijing. "It is totally without basis to say that 'the Maldives is mired in a Chinese debt trap'," the ministry cited Wang as saying.