“Extreme competition”: America working with G-7 members to compete with China’s BRI

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: The United States is working with other G-7 members to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through a network of infrastructure projects, including a railroad connecting Saudi Arabia, and Israel, with Europe under the proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEEC), President Joe Biden said.

The Group of Seven (G7) comprises the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

On the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in September in New Delhi, key leaders of the world, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Biden, announced the launch of the ambitious IMEEEC.

“We are going to compete on that (Belt and Road Initiative) and we’re doing it in a different way. The BRI has ended up in debt and a noose for most of the people (nations) who have signed on,” Biden said at a Rose Garden news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

He said that they are working with G-7 partners to provide infrastructure for those nations.

“We want to, for example, at the G-20, we were able to act on a proposal to build a railroad all the way from Riyadh all the way through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Israel, up through Greece, and not the railroad, but pipeline across the Mediterranean Sea up into Europe,” Biden said in response to a question.

The US President said that his previous comment of “extreme competition” with China was not a conflict. “I talked about how we’re going to compete with China in every way according to the international rules, economically, politically, and other ways, but not — I’m not looking for conflict,” he said in response to another question.

PM Albanese is headed to China next month.

President Biden was asked “What do you make of China’s re-engagement with Australia?” and “Can Australia trust Beijing, and can Australia do business with China?”

“‘Trust but verify’ is the phrase. And look, China is having its own internal and external difficulties right now. China’s economic growth is now stagnant compared to what it was. China has engaged in activities that Russia and many other activities have–that others have engaged in terms of intimidation and dealing with other countries,” Biden said.

“But the fact is that I have met with Xi Jinping more than any other world leader has. I’ve had over 68 hours of private meetings, with simultaneous interpreters starting back when I was the (US) Vice President.”

The two leaders, who had last met during the G-20 Summit in Indonesia in 2022, are likely to meet again in San Fransico in November, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.

Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had skipped the G-20 Summit in New Delhi last month.