Biden kicks off Americas version of the Belt and Road Initiative
A delegation of US officials will visit Colombia, Ecuador and Panama this week in a “listening tour” intended to identify potential infrastructure development projects in the region.
Led by President Biden’s deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh, the trip will include meetings with Colombian president Ivan Duque, Ecuadorean president Guillermo Lasso, Panamanian officials including public works minister Rafael Sabonge, and representatives of the private sector and “traditionally marginalized groups,” officials said.
The tour is the first of several planned by the Group of Seven countries – led by the US – through the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative they announced earlier this year as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which now boasts projects in more than 100 countries.
While the participating countries have not yet announced how much capital they expect the program to allocate, US officials have said the program will operate with full transparency related to financial terms and fund projects that meet environmental and labour standards.
Commenting on the news, Andre Wheeler, a Splash columnist and close watcher of the BRI, said: “With several countries now challenging China’s claims that BRI had been built on mutual respect, strong people-to-people bonds and non-interference in national sovereignty, there is a window of opportunity for the B3W to make itself more relevant.”
Here we go spending money on other countries while we have homeless, Vets needing help, high cost of energy thanks to sleepy Joes plan shutting down pipelines, Drug wars that are killing the inner cities for ever, where did we go wrong US? What’s next more Covid, recessions, the US is on a crash course to be taken over by the Chinese in economic war!!
” “With several countries now challenging China’s claims that BRI had been built on mutual respect, strong people-to-people bonds and non-interference in national sovereignty”. and will the USA’s projects be any dofferent? Histroy says no.
“A delegation of US officials will visit Colombia, Ecuador and Panama this week in a “listening tour” intended to identify potential infrastructure development projects in the region.” Might they come to Long Beach first would be the best place to start.