LONDON (Dispatches) - The Group of Seven (G7) nations have unveiled a significant infrastructure initiative for lower-income countries in a bid to counter China’s multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, dubbed the “New Silk Road”.
Promising to “collectively catalyze” hundreds of billions in infrastructure investments for low- and middle-income countries, the G7 leaders said that they would offer a “values-driven, high-standard and transparent” partnership.
The announcement was made as the leaders of the G7 countries – the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and Japan – gathered at the seaside resort of Carbis Bay in southwestern England.
Their “Build Back Better World” (B3W) project, championed by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, is aimed squarely at competing with the Belt and Road initiative, which has been widely criticized for saddling small countries with unmanageable debt.
The White House said in a statement that the initiative aims to “help narrow the $40+ trillion infrastructure need in the developing world, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
“This is not just about confronting or taking on China,” a senior U.S. official said. “This is about providing an affirmative, positive alternative vision for the world.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose nation has huge investments in China, called it an “important initiative” that was much needed in Africa.
“We can’t sit back and say that China will do it but it’s the G7’s ambition to have a positive agenda for a number of countries in the world which are still lagging behind … I welcome it,” she said.
Bays added that financing for the B3W project remains a big question mark, as “U.S. officials briefing reporters said they estimated there was a $14-trillion infrastructure gap … between now and 2035.”