G7 Launches Major Infrastructure Plan to Counter China

The U.S.-led Group of Seven (G7) is launching a $600 million infrastructure macro-plan to counter China's global influence and its push for the Belt and Road Initiative.

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The project, dubbed the "Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership," was announced at the G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, where the leaders of the world's richest and most industrialized nations – the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan - are meeting from Sunday through Tuesday.

The initiative aims to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars to create sustainable infrastructure in developing partner nations. 

For his part, U.S. President Joe Biden has said that his country will commit $200 billion in investments under the initiative over five years. The U.S. contribution will be a combination of federal government funds in collaboration with the private sector. In addition to the U.S. contribution, there will be a further $400 billion contributed by the other members of the Group of Seven for investment over the next five years.

Biden has assured that the initiative will make it possible to invest in sustainable projects "based on our shared values." "It is built with the best practices in the world: transparency, partnership, protection for workers and for the environment," he stressed.

The funds will be used to finance infrastructure needed in developing countries under the G7 initiative aimed at countering China's multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the White House announced, British news agency Reuters has reported.

The Belt and Road Initiative scheme, which Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013, aims to revitalize the well-known Silk Road by modernizing infrastructure and telecommunications to improve connectivity between Asia and Europe. The global project involves development and investment initiatives in more than 100 countries, with a range of projects including railroads, ports, and roads.

The U.S., whose influence in the Asian region is dwindling after its withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, does not take kindly to China's increased investment in this sensitive region. 

China has time and again denounced U.S. attempts to form a coalition against the Asian giant and warned that initiating a new cold war will lead to confrontation between the two powers.