A new report featuring recently declassified documents reveals the complicated history behind Hambantota Port’s debt woes and the importance of avoiding past mistakes as the Covid-19 pandemic pushes more of China’s borrowers to the brink.
Allied alternatives to China’s Belt and Road face a central challenge: international politics and infrastructure projects have fundamentally different timelines.
Jonathan Black and Daleep Singh, the UK and U.S. G7 Sherpas, respectively, discuss the Build Back Better World (B3W) infrastructure initiative and the G7’s response to China’s Belt & Road Initiative, among other outcomes from the June 2021 summit.
G7 leaders unveiled an initiative to support global infrastructure, launched as China’s Belt and Road Initiative pulls back. To succeed, the United States and its partners must design incentives that mobilize private capital and appeal to leaders in the developing world.
The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) response to Covid-19 may determine its emerging role in development finance, for good or ill. While it has responded quickly and substantially to the pressing needs of its members, these actions risk contributing to debt risks, institutional overreach, and perceived favoritism towards Beijing.