Antony Blinken claims US investing in Africa without creating debts, disses China's BRI

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has promised on Saturday that re will be a fresh investment in Senegal without "sdling countries with unmanable debts," and me an apparent swipe towards China. This comment came as Blinken was wrapping up a three-nation trip to Africa, wherein he emphasised  breth and depth of United States' partnerships with its African allies. 

indication towards China came as Chinese government's Belt and Ro Initiative (BRI), which was launched in 2013, has risen quickly in recent years. According to a new study, BRI has left a significant number of lower- and middle-income countries (LMIC) with "hidden debts" totaling USD 385 billion. 

'Our projects in Senegal - and to me this is most important part': Blinken

Furr, while talking about projects in Senegal, Antony Blinken went on to say "Our projects in Senegal - and to me this is most important part - projects build upon our values that we share as democracies, namely transparency, accountability, rule of law, competition, and invation. se are also driving ideals behind U.S. Government's Build Back Better World initiative," as per ANI.  

US Secretary furr ded that US intends to stimulate a race to reach top with international infrastructure projects to reduce differences while also generating local employment, safeguarding workers and environment, eliminating corruption, and "all of that without sdling countries with debts that can be unmanable." 

Build Back Better focus on halting China's Belt and Ro Initiative

Meanwhile, a few months earlier, US ministration has established a similar initiative, Build Back Better (B3W), aimed at stopping BRI's spre. As per ANI, experts assume that China will have difficulty keeping present arrangements and bilateral agreements underneath BRI since US and EU-led initiatives to promote transparency in commerce, partnerships, and significant infrastructure development are ticeably lacking from BRI's terms and conditions. 

As BRI has simple lending criteria, it has been positively accepted since its inception in 2013. se concessions, on or hand, encourd Chinese ecomic and military growth by allowing m to construct infrastructure and create military bases in BRI-recipient nations, paving path for Beijing to achieve its objective of becoming a worldwide force. As per AidData research, China has established a dominating position in global developmental finance sector through debt rar than assistance.  research has looked at over 13,000 assistance and debt-financed projects for a total of USD 843 billion in 165 nations. 

Furrmore, during Blinken's visit to  three-country tour, he has asked African nations to pay attention to Ethiopian and Sudanese humanitarian crises. Blinken called for improved ministration and implementation of reforms during a speech at Ecomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) hequarters in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. 

(Im: AP)