The Group of Seven will seek to rival China’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative by announcing a global infrastructure plan to help developing nations.
According to a senior US official, the G7 is trying to find a coherent response to the growing assertiveness of China. Leaders of the G7- the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Japan – want to use their gathering to show the world that the richest democracies can offer an alternative to China’s growing clout. The US official said that until now, the West had failed to offer a positive alternative to the lack of transparency, poor environmental and labour standards and coercive approach of the Chinese government that had left many countries worse off.
The official added that the US would also push the other G7 leaders for concrete action on forced labour in China and to include criticism of Beijing in their final communique from a three-day summit in southwest England.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative, BRI, is a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme that China launched in 2013, involving development and investment initiatives that would stretch from Asia to Europe and beyond. More than 100 countries have signed agreements with China to cooperate in BRI projects like railways, ports, highways and other infrastructure.
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