China is using ‘debt diplomacy’ to expand its global influence and Hambantota Port could soon become a forward military base for Beijing’s growing blue-water navy, US Vice President Mike Pence has said on Thursday.

According to PTI, Pence said China was offering hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure loans to governments from Asia to Africa to Europe to even Latin America.

“Yet the terms of those loans are opaque at best, and the benefits flow overwhelmingly to Beijing,” Pence said.