A project could be decided at the G20 summit that is likely to anger Beijing. It would be in direct competition with China’s Silk Road.
The European Union, the USA and other partners have launched a huge rail and shipping project. It is intended to better connect Europe, the Middle East and India, as US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday at the G20 summit in New Delhi.
It had already become known that the USA, with the participation of the EU and other countries, was planning to expand railway lines and ports in the Middle East and South Asia. According to US information, the project is intended to compete with the Chinese Silk Road project.
“Connecting these key regions is, in our view, a great opportunity,” US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi. Details on the amount of the planned investments were not initially given.
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USA and China are fighting over the Middle East
The plans come at a critical time. US President Joe Biden is trying to counter China’s “New Silk Road” trade project. For years, the People’s Republic has been spending several hundred billion dollars building a new route along the legendary Silk Road that will reach numerous countries, including the states of Eastern Europe. The EU criticizes that China is making poorer countries dependent on itself with this project.
The agreement will benefit low- and middle-income countries in the region and enable the Middle East to play an important role in global trade, Finer said. It aims to connect the countries of the Middle East by rail and connect them to India via ports. This should also promote better energy and trade exchange from the Gulf to Europe by reducing transport times, costs and fuel consumption, as the US said.
The move comes amid US efforts to reach a broader diplomatic agreement in the Middle East. This also provides for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel. But China has also expanded its relations with the Middle East in the past. At the beginning of the year, Beijing achieved a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic regime of Iran.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping stayed away from the G20 summit on Saturday after the two world powers spent months trying to improve relations ravaged by trade disputes and geopolitical tensions. There was initially no reaction from Beijing to the US announcement.
