Emerging and developing markets are competing to attract outside investment and playing an even greater role in the global economy.
On June 28-29, government leaders representing 85 percent of the global economy convened for the fourteenth G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. In the wake of the meeting, the CSIS Simon Chair in Political Economy hosted experts including Japan’s ambassador to the G20, Koji Tomita, to discuss major outcomes, including China’s endorsement of the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment.
It is critical that public-sector officials responsible for infrastructure development—both at the local and national levels—commit to transparent practices to secure sustainable financing mechanisms.
China’s hostile economic practices, military expansion, and coercive political and ideological tactics in Africa should not be ignored. However, establishing a clear distinction between detrimental and essential BRI engagement is crucial to fostering development, building common ground with China, and expanding the global market.
With an eye toward illuminating current issues, this report draws from examples throughout history of how states use foreign infrastructure to advance strategic objectives. It shows how China is updating and exercising tactics used by Western powers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and how these issues, and the strategic implications they carry, are likely to intensify in the coming years.
Should inter-Korean cooperation result in the re-joining of North and South Korea’s railways, it could connect the peninsula through China and Russia to a rail network that spans Eurasia. President Moon has been building on South Korea’s longstanding, albeit intermittent, conversations and aspirational cooperation commitments with China and Russia to plan for future integration. However, once the Korean peninsula’s railways are reconnected, a long and costly modernization process will be necessary to fully integrate the systems in a commercially viable way, complicating the future of these potentially transformative links.