Leaders from the Group of Seven (G-7) representing the world’s wealthiest democracies announced on June 26 that $600 billion would be allocated for global infrastructure programs to counter the Chinese regime’s expansion through its financing of enormous loans to poor countries for building infrastructure.
U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders pledged to raise $600 billion by 2027 for the plan, known as the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, aimed at supporting the infrastructure needs of low- and middle-income countries.
The United States will mobilize $200 billion for the partnership over the next five years “through grants, federal financing, and leveraging private sector investments,” according to the White House.
Europe has announced that it will mobilize 300 billion euros over the same period.
‘Debt-Trap Diplomacy’
The infrastructure plan is seen as a rebranding of the Build Back Better World initiative, also known as B3W, which was first unveiled at last year’s G-7 summit in the UK as a response to the Chinese regime’s multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road (BRI) project.“It is up to us to give a positive and powerful investment impulse to the world to show our partners in the developing world that they have a choice,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the June 26 press conference.
The partnership will focus on health, digital infrastructure, gender equality, climate, and energy security.
Biden highlighted several flagship projects, including a $2 billion solar development project in Angola with support from the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, U.S. firm AfricaGlobal Schaffer, and U.S. project developer Sun Africa.
“When democracies demonstrate what we can do, all that we have to offer, I have no doubt they will win the competition every time,” he said.