CARBIS BAY, England:
The Group of Seven wealthy nations will announce on Saturday a new worldwide infrastructure strategy as a response to China’s belt and road intiative, a senior official in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration stated.
The official, who spoke to reporters on situation of anonymity, stated the United States would also push the other G7 leaders for “concrete action on forced labour” in China, and to incorporate criticism of Beijing in their final communique
“This is not just about confronting or taking on China,” the official stated. “But until now we haven’t offered a positive alternative that reflects our values, our standards and our way of doing business.”
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping involving development and investment initiatives that would stretch from Asia to Europe and beyond.
More than one hundred nations have signed agreements with China to cooperate in BRI projects like railways, ports, highways and other infrastructure.
According to a Refinitiv database, as of mid-last year, more than 2,600 projects at a expense of $3.7 trillion have been linked to the initiative, though the Chinese foreign ministry stated last June that about 20% of projects had been seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March, Biden stated he had recommended to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the 3-day G7 leaders’ summit in southwest England, that democratic nations need to create their personal rival scheme.
The U.S. official stated till now, the West had failed to give a positive option to the “lack of transparency, poor environmental and labour standards, and coercive approach” of the Chinese government that had left lots of nations worse off.
“So tomorrow we’ll be announcing ‘build back better for the world,’ an ambitious new global infrastructure initiative with our G7 partners that won’t just be an alternative to the B and I (Belt and Road),” the official stated.
In talks, Biden will also press the other leaders to make clear that they think forced labour practices have been an affront to human dignity and “an egregious example of China’s unfair economic competition” to show that they have been significant about defending human rights.
“We’re pushing on being specific on areas like Xinjiang where forced labour is taking place and where we have to express our values as a G7,” the official stated of the final communique to be issued at the finish of the summit on Sunday,
There have been no specifics on how the worldwide infrastructure scheme would be funded. The strategy would involve raising hundreds of billions in public and private income to assist close a $40 trillion infrastructure gap in needy nations by 2035, the official stated
The aim was to work with Congress to supplement current development financing “with the hope that together with G7 partners, the private sector and other stakeholders we soon be collectively catalyzing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment for low and middle income countries that need it”.