The West is pushing back on China's Belt and Road Initiative | Hope for hyperloop in northern Italy | Why AVs could create more traffic
infrastruttura
no. 33
As China rethinks the strategy underpinning its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the West has found an opening for advancing its own interests by also funding global infrastructure.
Geopolitics and infrastructure assets remain tied closely at the hip during our moment of heightened post-pandemic global tensions over supply chains, energy, Ukraine, and more. Driven in part by these factors, at an infrastructure event held at the recent G20 summit in New Delhi, the US and the EU, along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other G20 nations, announced that they will sign an MOU to explore the development of a 3000-mile shipping and rail transportation link tying together India, the Middle East, and Europe.
The corridor is a direct challenge to the BRI (which G7 member Italy is actually trying to get out of). It will eventually connect Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and maybe Israel by freight rail, and then establish sea lanes on to Europe and India. America's deputy national security advisor, Jon Finer, told the Wall Street Journal that the plans are "expensive and ambitious," but are designed to curb Beijing's influence across the global south, allowing the US and its allies to promote their values and agendas in these critically important geopolitical regions. Yet China's experience with the BRI over the last decade should offer a cautionary tale for the West as it embarks on these initiatives.