G7 vs China: USD 600 billion announced to counter China's BRI

New Delhi, Jun 27: The G7 has announced USD 600 billion for global infrastructure programmes in underdeveloped countries, in order to counter the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to the White House, the group will spend USD 600 billion starting from the present year until 2027, "through grants, federal financing, and leveraging private sector investments."

 

 

 

 

According to the reports of WION, the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, unveiled with fanfare by US President Joe Biden and G7 allies from Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the European Union, aims to fill a huge gap left as communist China uses its economic clout to stretch diplomatic tentacles into the furthest reaches of the world.

 

 

 

 

According to US Prez Joe Biden, the target was for the United States to bring USD 200 billion to the table, with the rest of the G7 another USD 400 billion by 2027. He said, funding the kinds of projects that China currently dominates, everything from roads to harbors in far-flung corners of the world is not 'aid or charity'. Unlike the Chinese state-run Belt and Road Initiative, the proposed G7 funding would depend largely on private companies being willing to commit to massive investments.

 

US President Joe Biden highlighted the geostrategic significance of the plan and said that such projects deliver returns for everyone, including the American people and the people of all our nations. European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said "it is up to us to give a positive, powerful investment impulse to the world, to show our partners in the developing world that they have a choice."