President Biden on Saturday promised a massive infusion of US taxpayer dollars into Asian and African railways and green infrastructure in an effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multibillion-dollar influence effort.
“This is a big problem,” Biden said at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India. “This is a very big problem.”
The White House pledged more than $1 billion in US funding — with more to come — during Biden’s meeting with leaders of India, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and others representing the world’s largest economies.
At the top of Biden’s agenda is a plan to create a new rail and shipping corridor that will connect India to Europe via the Middle East via the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Israel.
The White House did not provide details on funding or a timeline for the massive project, which would combine data and electrical cables alongside rail, the G20 leaders said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Biden as he arrives for the G20 meeting in New Delhi.POOL/AFP via Getty Images
But Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman floated the $20 billion figure during the announcement — without saying who was expected to pay.
A separate “Trans-African Corridor” rail project, also announced by the group and led by the US and the EU, will connect the port of Lobito, Angola with rare earth and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia — essential materials for electric cars and other technologies needed to rid the world of fossil fuels.
Biden touted the potential of the African rail system as a “game changing regional investment.”
“These two are huge, huge steps forward,” the Amtrak-loving president enthused.
Biden joked with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom during the two-day summit.Getty Images
Meanwhile in a separate statement, the Biden administration pledged more than $1.1 billion in US funding for projects in India and Mozambique aimed at advancing the Democrats’ ecological agenda.
The US Development Finance Corporation will send up to $425 million in funding to TP Solar Limited for a new solar power facility in Tamil Nadu, India, along with up to $500 million to launch a “renewable infrastructure investment fund” in India and $150 million for a graphite mining company in Mozambique.
DFC, a taxpayer-funded federal agency, will also lend $50 million to an Indian pharmaceutical company to produce “insulin biosimilars,” a diabetes treatment that has not yet received US Food and Drug Administration approval.
“It’s about creating jobs, increasing trade, strengthening supply chains, increasing connectivity, laying the foundations that will strengthen trade and food security for people in many countries,” Biden said during his prepared remarks.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
