US President Joe Biden said he suggested to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone call on Friday that democratic countries should have an infrastructure plan to rival China’s Belt and Road initiative, Al Jazeera reports.
“I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative, pulling from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that need help,” Biden told reporters.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure scheme launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping involving development and investment initiatives that would stretch from East Asia to Europe.
The project would significantly expand China’s economic and political influence, raising concerns in the US and elsewhere.
Biden’s remarks came after he said he would prevent China from passing the US to become the most potent country globally, pledging to invest heavily to ensure the US prevails in the ever-growing rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.
Biden plans to unveil a multitrillion-dollar plan to upgrade US infrastructure next week. He said this would ensure increased US investment in promising new technologies, such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology.
