At the G7 summit last week, US President Biden urged the leaders of the richest democracies in the world to put together hundreds of billions in loans to developing nations in a direct challenge to Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, according to a NYT article [Biden Tries to Rally G7 Nations to Counter China's Influence]. This new 'Initiative' (for lack of a better term) was given a name, ‘Build Back Better World' (or B3W), making a clear reference to the theme of Biden's presidential campaign. The core idea is basically to stitch together the existing plans by the US, Japan (such as Quality Infrastructure), and Europe (such as Connectivity Strategy) under this initiative.
The NYT article points to the serious challenges ahead of this initiative. The Biden administration itself did not financially commit to it. American allies such as Germany, Italy, and the EU 'were clearly concerned about risking their huge trade and investment deals with Beijing'. B3W will clearly be value-driven, which means investment is going to be based on democracy, anti-corruption measures, transparency, and all the rest, a conditionality that many developing countries have historically grown allergic to. They appreciate the no-strings-attached approach of China to investment. And finally, dealing with a patchwork of programs and multiple nations and officials may seem less appealing than dealing with 'Beijing's all-in-one package of financing and new technology'. Despite all that, Biden rightly sees an opening at this moment in global affairs and he's banking on it to see what, if anything, it will yield.
M. Forough
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