THE G7 group of rich democracies on Sunday announced an attempt to compete with China’s formidable Belt and Road Initiative by raising some $600 billion for global infrastructure programmes in poor countries.
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.
Biden said the target was for the United States to bring $200 billion to the table, with the rest of the G7 another $400 billion by 2027.
Funding the kinds of projects that China currently dominates — everything from roads to harbours in far-flung corners of the world — is not “aid or charity,” Biden said.
Highlighting the geostrategic thinking behind the plan, Biden said such
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