A popular...

....definition of sovereign external debt from a popular book on the subject goes as follows:

External debt:  The total debt liabilities of a country with foreign creditors, both official (public) and private.  Creditors often determine all the terms of the debt contracts, which are normally subject to the jurisdiction of the foreign creditors or to international law (for multilateral credits)

Pay special attention to the jurisdictional portion of the definition and you will begin to understand why being a Sovereign Currency Issuer with zero External debt is leaves you in an extremely powerful position relative to foreign competitors.